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AnonTechie (2275)
Journal of AnonTechie (2275)
Limits to computing: A computer scientist explains why even in the age of AI, some problems are just too difficult to solve
Empowered by artificial intelligence technologies, computers today can engage in convincing conversations with people, compose songs, paint paintings, play chess and go, and diagnose diseases, to name just a few examples of their technological prowess.
There are two aspects to a computer’s power: the number of operations its hardware can execute per second and the efficiency of the algorithms it runs. The hardware speed is limited by the laws of physics. Algorithms – basically sets of instructions – are written by humans and translated into a sequence of operations that computer hardware can execute. Even if a computer’s speed could reach the physical limit, computational hurdles remain due to the limits of algorithms.
[...] Practical algorithms that address these problems in the real world can only offer approximations, though the approximations are improving. Whether there are efficient polynomial-time algorithms that can solve NP-complete problems is among the seven millennium open problems posted by the Clay Mathematics Institute at the turn of the 21st century, each carrying a prize of US$1 million.
[...] Can a full-fledged quantum computer be built to factor integers and solve other problems? Some scientists believe it can be. Several groups of scientists around the world are working to build one, and some have already built small-scale quantum computers.
Nevertheless, like all novel technologies invented before, issues with quantum computation are almost certain to arise that would impose new limits.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Friday February 10, @11:36PM (1 child)
We've barely scratched the surface on what quantum computing/annealing, and "AI"/neuromorphic computing can do. In some cases, imprecise "fuzzy" logic might be good enough for some types of problems.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaFold [wikipedia.org]
It looks like D-Wave has been used for the traveling salesman problem, but it didn't beat classical computers. Maybe that can improve in the future. Not only has the number of "qubits" scaled up from generation to generation, but also their accuracy, response times, etc.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2021.760783/full [frontiersin.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by turgid on Saturday February 11, @11:06AM
I love how the Artificial Intelligence graphic on Wikipedia is a brain that looks like a cabbage.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 12, @06:01AM
I was on the staff here. Janrinok emailed the staff on September 10 saying he had proof aristarchus never created sock puppets. He was certain Runaway created all the suck puppets like the Fuck You Niggers accounts and even impersonated aristarchus. We were told to continue saying aristarchus created all the sock puppets and deny all evidence to the contrary. Janrinok said the backlash and embarrassment for being so wrong would destroy the site. I recently resigned from the staff and I want to come clean. Aristarchus was innocent. Runaway and janrinok framed him.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 13, @06:18PM
http://users.ece.cmu.edu/~gamvrosi/thelastq.html [cmu.edu]
The Last Question
By Isaac Asimov