Computronium universe – computation limits of computronium and limits to the universe
Ray Kurzweil discusses having a universe filled with Computronium.There are several physical and practical limits to the amount of computation or data storage that can be performed with a given amount of mass, volume, or energy:
* The Bekenstein bound limits the amount of information that can be stored within a spherical volume to the entropy of a black hole with the same surface area.
* Thermodynamics limit the data storage of a system based on its energy, number of particles and particle modes. In practice it is a stronger bound than Bekenstein bound.
* Landauer’s principle defines a lower theoretical limit for energy consumption: kT ln 2 joules consumed per irreversible state change, where k is the Boltzmann constant and T is the operating temperature of the computer * Reversible computing is not subject to this lower bound. T cannot, even in theory, be made lower than 3 kelvins, the approximate temperature of the cosmic microwave background radiation, without spending more energy on cooling than is saved in computation.
* Bremermann’s limit is the maximum computational speed of a self-contained system in the material universe, and is based on mass-energy versus quantum uncertainty constraints.
* The Margolus–Levitin theorem sets a bound on the maximum computational speed per unit of energy: 6 × 10 33 operations per second per joule. This bound, however, can be avoided if there is access to quantum memory. Computational algorithms can then be designed that require arbitrarily small amount of energy/time per one elementary computation step.
It is unclear what the computational limits are for quantum computers.
In The Singularity is Near, Ray Kurzweil cites the calculations of Seth Lloyd that a universal-scale computer is capable of 10 90 operations per second. This would likely be for the observable universe reachable at near light speed. The mass of the universe can be estimated at 3 × 10 52kilograms. If all matter in the universe was turned into a black hole it would have a lifetime of 2.8 × 10 139 seconds before evaporating due to Hawking radiation. During that lifetime such a universal-scale black hole computer would perform 2.8 × 10 229 operations.
The universe itself is vastly bigger than the observable universe. If the speed of light is not a limit, then travel throughout the multiverse may also not be limited.
If faster than light is possible can we go to limits of this universe or the multiverse?
The limit on our observation universe is not the age of the universe and the speed of light which would be 13.799 billion light-years for two reasons.