In a message dated 5/4/2001 5:27:15 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
lcorbin@ricochet.net writes:
<< It's possible that more advanced civilizations try
to achieve reversibility. It might be kind of an
"ecologically" or "environmentally" friendly way to
calculate. Primitive civilizations, like ours, might
be forgiven for charging ahead irreversibly. >>
We could be forgiven then for being a slash and burn culture-not even at
Kardashev1 yet!
<<We hardly know anything
yet; after we get some Dyson shells going around a few
stars we can wonder whether we ought to try computing our
civilization reversibly.>>
Reverse determinism is possible through the physics concept of phase
conservation. We must be many milenia away from that technology', een on a
very, modest, basis.
<<So while intelligence is possible without entropy increases,
it doesn't seem worth the effort. I'm sure that people and
probably most life represent an increase in entropy production
from what it would have been if life weren't around, e.g., the
Berserkers get their way (Jim F. and Damien will doubtless
know what I'm talking about).>>
For our personal satisfaction we will need to recover the information of the
past, which is us.
Mitch
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 10:00:02 MDT