- #1
ricardo81
- 39
- 1
It's been suggested that the Universe has no more than 10^90 (potentially up to 10^120) bits of information (Seth Lloyd, Computational Capacity of the Universe, http://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/0110141v1.pdf )
As a bit string that's 10^90 arrangements of 0's and 1's. In the same document he mentions that until now, there's a maximum of 10^120 bit switching operations that could occurred in the timespan from the Big Bang to the present.
I have some queries regarding this and hopefully your better educated minds can enlighten me! I believe my questions emphasise the informational content more than the operations though I may be wrong in assuming that.
1. Is there a meaningful way, given current understanding of physics, to translate this base 2 understanding into the current understanding of physics?
2. If so, is there a rough percentage of that of these 10^90 bit string variations that can be ruled out? i.e. it'd be unlikely (perhaps) that there'd be more than 90% 0's, or 90% 1's.
3. It seems like if you could calculate the number of bits required to describe elementary particles then that would reduce complexity by many orders of magnitude. This is along the lines of "Hashlife" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashlife) being able to describe Game of Life evolutions more efficiently. Does quantum mechanics ruin this assumption?
4. I probably could think of more related questions, but generally I'd welcome any comment.
Thanks
As a bit string that's 10^90 arrangements of 0's and 1's. In the same document he mentions that until now, there's a maximum of 10^120 bit switching operations that could occurred in the timespan from the Big Bang to the present.
I have some queries regarding this and hopefully your better educated minds can enlighten me! I believe my questions emphasise the informational content more than the operations though I may be wrong in assuming that.
1. Is there a meaningful way, given current understanding of physics, to translate this base 2 understanding into the current understanding of physics?
2. If so, is there a rough percentage of that of these 10^90 bit string variations that can be ruled out? i.e. it'd be unlikely (perhaps) that there'd be more than 90% 0's, or 90% 1's.
3. It seems like if you could calculate the number of bits required to describe elementary particles then that would reduce complexity by many orders of magnitude. This is along the lines of "Hashlife" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashlife) being able to describe Game of Life evolutions more efficiently. Does quantum mechanics ruin this assumption?
4. I probably could think of more related questions, but generally I'd welcome any comment.
Thanks