23 JUN 2012 by ideonexus

 If We Do Not Find an Alternative to Oil...

The power of man to do work—one man-power—is, in its purely physical sense, now an insignificant accomplishment, and could only again justify his existence if other sources of power failed. ... Curious persons in cloisteral seclusion are experimenting with new sources of energy, which, if ever harnessed, would make coal and oil as useless as oars and sails. If they fail in their quest, or are too late, so that coal and oil, everywhere sought for, are no longer found, and the only hope of ...
Folksonomies: alternative energy oil
Folksonomies: alternative energy oil
  1  notes

...we will see a return to the galley-slaves rowing ships when it runs out.

03 JAN 2011 by ideonexus

 The Chance of Error in Atomic Sized Computers

The first thing that you would worry about when things get very small is Brownian motion--everything is shaking about and nothing stays in place. How can you control the circuits then? Furthermore, if a circuit does work, doesn't it now have a chance of accidentally jumping back? If we use two volts for the energy of this electric system, which is what we ordinarily use, that is eighty times the thermal energy at room temperature (kT=1/40 volt) and the chance that something jumps backward aga...
Folksonomies: computing physics
Folksonomies: computing physics
  1  notes

As things get very small we have to worry about brownian motion and quantum effects on the system.