Feynman And Computation

by Anthony Hey

Overview

Computational properties of use to biological organisms or to the construction of computers can emerge as collective properties of systems having a large number of simple equivalent components (or neurons). The physical meaning of content-addressable memory is described by an appropriate phase space flow of the state of a system. A model of such a system is given, based on aspects of neurobiology but readily adapted to integrated circuits. The collective properties of this model produce a content-addressable memory which correctly yields an entire memory from any subpart of sufficient size. The algorithm for the time evolution of the state of the system is based on asynchronous parallel processing. Additional emergent collective properties include some capacity for generalization, familiarity recognition, categorization, error correction, and time sequence retention. The collective properties are only weakly sensitive to details of the modeling or the failure of individual devices.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780429980084
Publisher:	CRC Press
Publication date:	03/08/2018
Series:	Frontiers in Physics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	464
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

Hey, Anthony

Table of Contents

Feynman and Computation -- Feynman’s Course on Computation -- Feynman and Computation -- Neural Networks and Physical Systems with Emergent Collective Computational Abilities -- Feynman as a Colleague -- Collective Electrodynamics I -- A Memory -- Numerical Evidence that the Motion of Pluto is Chaotic -- Reducing the Size -- There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom -- Information is Inevitably Physical -- Scaling of MOS Technology to Submicrometer Feature Sizes -- Richard Feynman and Cellular Vacuum -- Quantum Limits -- Simulating Physics with Computers -- Quantum Robots -- Quantum Information Theory -- Quantum Computation -- Parallel Computation -- Computing Machines in the Future -- Internetics: Technologies, Applications and Academic Fields -- Richard Feynman and the Connection Machine -- Crystalline Computation -- Fundamentals -- Information, Physics, Quantum: The Search for Links -- Feynman, Barton and the Reversible Schrödinger Difference Equation -- Action, or the Fungibility of Computation -- Algorithmic Randomness, Physical Entropy, Measurements, and the Demon of Choice

Editorial Reviews

This work was originally published in 1999 by Perseus Press. Three papers by Feynman and 19 contributions address the advanced topics covered in the course on computation he taught at CalTech. Many of the contributions are updated versions of guest lectures. The five sections consider the evolution of his lectures, limitations due to size, limitations due to quantum mechanics, parallel computation, and fundamentals, such as reversible dynamics, action integrals, and the threat to the second law of thermodynamics posed by Maxwell's Demon. Intended as a complementary volume to (1996). Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)