Ref: Astrophysics, abstract
astro-ph/0404510
From: Lawrence M. Krauss [view email]
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 21:07:11 GMT (29kb)
Universal Limits on Computation
Authors: Lawrence M. Krauss (1), Glenn D. Starkman (1 and 2) ((1) Case Western Reserve University, (2) CERN)
Comments: 3 pages including eps figure, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett
Report-no: CWRU-PA 12-04
The physical limits to computation have been under active scrutiny
over the past decade or two, as theoretical investigations of the
possible impact of quantum mechanical processes on computing have
begun to make contact with realizable experimental configurations.
We demonstrate here that the observed acceleration of the Universe
can produce a universal limit on the total amount of information
that can be stored and processed in the future, putting an ultimate
limit on future technology for any civilization, including a
time-limit on Moore's Law. The limits we derive are stringent, and
include the possibilities that the computing performed is either
distributed or local. A careful consideration of the effect of
horizons on information processing is necessary for this analysis,
which suggests that the total amount of information that can be
processed by any observer is significantly less than the
Hawking-Beckenstein entropy associated with the existence of an
event horizon in an accelerating universe.
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