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slatestarscratchpad:

nostalgebraist:

The heat-death of the universe need not bring an end to the computing age. A strange device known as a time crystal can theoretically continue to work as a computer even after the universe cools.

I looked it up and found this article, which I don’t understand. Does the time crystal itself outlast the heat death, or does the ability to perform computations on the time crystal outlast the heat death?

(ie could a world simulated on a time crystal exist indefinitely without having to worry about entropy?)

I think it’s that the ability to perform computations would survive – but note that this is a speculation on top of a speculation.  "Time crystals” may or may not be possible, and even if they are, the idea of computing with them is even more speculative.  The original paper mentions as an brief off-hand note that it’s “interesting to speculate” about.

This is a more detailed and less hype-driven article about the idea, although it doesn’t mention the computation aspect at all.

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25. slartibartfastibast reblogged this from slatestarscratchpad and added:

    THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER. PUT THE TIME CRYSTAL IN MY CHEST, SAM.

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    If true, and if they are the only way of doing an infinite amount of complex computing, then with probability 1 we are...

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40. amaranththallium reblogged this from slatestarscratchpad and added:

    at least we have billions and billions of years before the heat death of the universe to figure it out! :D

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46. nightpool42 reblogged this from slatestarscratchpad and added:

    now this is the kind of content I like to see

47. rangi42 reblogged this from nostalgebraist and added:

    This reminds me of Greg Egan’s Permutation City, when (spoilers)…

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49. rauwyn reblogged this from slatestarscratchpad and added:

    So a time crystal is an object where the lowest-energy state is constant, periodic rotation. If you cool water enough,...

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