Posted on 09/25/2012 12:21:39 PM PDT by LibWhacker
I would rather all research like this were privately done unless there is military potential but as long as we are going to spend tax money I’d rather it go to something like this than to pay for twinkies and soda pop at the convenience store or lottery tickets as I see so many people doing in my town.
Heat death occurs when t=infinity. Thus the clock wouldwork forever.
Also the universe is expanding, heat death does not equal no motion.
NAPL!
“Because it’s functioning at the lowest quantum energy state, there is no energy output.”
Ummm... what about radioactive decay? Just because something is at its lowest energy state doesn’t mean it will stay that way forever. Everything breaks down eventually.
Isn’t any clock a “crystal in time”? It’s periodic, after all.
“Useless. If you can’t take any energy out of it, you can’t synchronize an external chronometer to it.”
-—<>-—<>-—<>-—<>-—<>-—
Worse than that: it is impossible to read it in any way.
Being at ground state, it will not emit even one photon.
Furthermore, if you view it in any way, you will break it permanently.
And even if you want to use it as a “once-only” device knowing you will break it, there is no way to know how many cycles it has suffered, and I can imagine no way to accomplish that short of having an infinite number of such devices and reading them simultaneously.
You are exactly right.
Anyone who likes this kind of thinking will just loooove the book “Permutation City”. Wild stuff man.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.