Black hole computers

Sat Nov 20, 2004 10:13 pm by J Dawg

Whilst waiting in the hospital this morning for a blood test, I picked up a recent issue of Scientific American, and read part of the article regarding the new theories of using black holes as superfast computers (estimated at 100 giga-gigahertz). Unfortunately I had to leave before I got too far into the article. It talked of encoding particles (like by altering electron spin appropriately) and tossing them into the black hole, and finding your results by interpreting the radiation that comes out. Can anyone fill me in here on the details? Sounds like an interesting idea. I wonder when they'll make a home model...

Sat Nov 20, 2004 11:03 pm by Fear Factor

I'm still waiting for the "improbability drive" to power my spaceship. Having one of those blackhole computers to navigate won't hurt tho

Sun Nov 21, 2004 2:31 am by Megistos

I doubt such a computer would be very fast...a black hole emits Hawking radiation, but that radiation has nothing to do with the contents of the hole, because it's not actually coming from inside the hole itself. According to Stephen Hawking's new theory of July this year, the black hole will eventually open up - allowing you to read your results - but that will only happen after a very long time indeed. So it could be a very fast computer, but you'd have to wait ages to actually get to your results, as they're trapped inside the black hole.

Sun Nov 21, 2004 5:29 am by kimk

remember, all those are actually theories, and can be wrong. just not proven cause it just can't be tested yet.

Sun Nov 21, 2004 6:22 am by Megistos

The alternative to Hawking's new theory is that the black hole doesn't open up at all - meaning it's even less useful

Sun Nov 21, 2004 9:11 am by Eh_Steve

I've been sucked in enough to PCs. Let's get people into space more before we start running Half-Life 2 on an astronomical anomaly.

I don't understand it, but then again it's noon and I just woke up.

WARNING: Prosecutors will be violated

Sun Nov 21, 2004 4:58 pm by Esquilax

Meh. Personally I am looking forward to "quantum" computing. "Black hole" computing doesn't sound very practical to me, not to mention the costs

.

Mon Nov 22, 2004 2:07 am by kimk

yea, quantum comps would really be uber neat.

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