Reversible
Contents
Full Title or Meme
There are many examples in nature and in society where we would like to run things backwards or do things differently.
Context
Computations
Energy has become one of the biggest problems today's computing system face.[1] There are several ways to address this problem on the pages for Quantum Information Theory and Analog Computers. Other methods include Reversible computing and methods to avoid the Von Neumann Bottleneck of putting all data and instructions through a single process stream as he designed in the early days of computing.Rolf Landauer and others at IBM argued that conventual computer were bound by a lower limit based on entropy which is still a very long way away from current computers which are made faster by pushing the limits on what can be processed in the time available. These digital computers are designed to make no computation errors within the time required to complete their tasks rather than to be efficient.
Physics
The Mammalian Brain
The nerve cell consists of a body from which originate one or more branches. Each branch is a axon of the cell. The nerve impulse i a change, propagated at a (normally) fixed speed along each axon. This is most often characterized as an electric disturbance, with a potential of about 50 millivolts for about one millisecond. This change in coincident with a chemical change along the axon. At the termination of the axon the chemical character of the change is more obvious and characteristic substances appear as the pulse arrives. Once the pulse is forwarded, all constituents of the nerve cell reverses to there quiescent state. This is not quite the same level of reversibility as is evident above as erasure always occurs after an activation, but it is import in minimizing the total energy consumption of the brain.[2]
Society
Nostalgia is a powerful emotion that all humans are effected by from time to time. However, there are periods where a desire to reverse the clock to a more "natural" or "normal" time overwhelms rational thought. Taken to the extreme the back-to-nature effort seems to cause us to forget all of the advances that have made the human plight more enjoyable.
Others
References
- ↑ Chris Edwards, Go Backward, Save Energy, CACM 65 No 11. (2022-11)
- ↑ John von Nuemann, The Computer & the Brain Yale Univ Press (1958) ISBN 9780300181111
Other Material
- See wiki page on Least Action
