New maze-like beamsplitter is world's smallest

Physics World ^ | 05/25/2015 | Ker Than

[aimhigh]

An ultracompact beamsplitter – the smallest one in the world – has been designed and fabricated by researchers in the US. Using a newly developed algorithm, the team built the smallest integrated polarization beamsplitter to date, which could allow computers and mobile devices of the future to function millions of times faster than current machines.

[dp0622]

I think I followed about 27% of that. Better than my usual average. sometimes free Republic makes me feel not so bright lol. would it just be more memory and faster processing that would give a computer consciousness? Or would something else be needed.

[Thumper1960]

That "maze" of yours took a split second to solve, simply by looking at it.

snore....

[who_would_fardels_bear]

I would take the last bit of my last post with a grain of salt.

It may be that we will never be able to create machines that have consciousness like ours. I believe that we will be able to create machines that mimic human behavior to a large degree, but it may be technically impossible to go that last mile from mimicking human behavior to true consciousness.

That being said, this and other technologies will allow us to put more computing power in smaller spaces with less weight and less power. Think of what this could do for drones. You could create really small fly-like drones with ridiculous amounts of sensing and computing powers. Cell phones could disappear into our heads, or maybe just implanted somewhere near or inside our ears. We could all have heads-up displays in our eyes so that when we looked out on a city block we would see Yelp reviews superimposed over each of the restaurants and shops.

Things might get a bit creepy and maybe a bit too Orwellian, but there will be all those cool new gadgets to play with.

[hosepipe]

what could a computer that goes millions of times faster than the ones we have now do? serious question.

---

make uploading, downloading, streaming much quicker...
for three things..

[dp0622]

incredible. I’ve read they are going to make robots the size of blood cells to repair the body.i as someone who still has the effects of a brain injury, not so much the intellectual effects but physical effects, I wonder if in 10 years the strides may help. And of course I hope they help people with cancer and Parkinsons and Alzheimers. the issues I have now are quite the nuisance and scary but not life altering. Of course the fear is that they would be down the line. That’s why I hope technology will catch up lol.

[SunkenCiv]

Computing at the speed of light: Team takes big step toward much faster computers
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3291084/posts

[piytar]

Something else. Memory, speed, and even complexity don’t create the “I think therefor I am” reality. We humans don’t know (scientifically) what does. Only God does.

[dp0622]

isn’t it insane? Which cells cluster or group of cells give us the identity of self that we have? what makes me know I am mark? Crazy stuff

[piytar]

Your soul does. The brain is just a lens for interfacing with this hologram most people think is “reality.” /JMHO

[roadcat]

what could a computer that goes millions of times faster than the ones we have now do?

It will answer that particular question you ask. For example, how to synthetically manufacture any type of food without the need to raise and slaughter animals. Think Star Trek Replicator. This beamsplitter technology may someday evolve to enable moving atomic particles together to manufacture whatever we so desire. What we have now would be deemed impossible by people 100 years ago.

[dp0622]

that’s just a staggering thought. I love reading about stuff like that. my goodness if we don’t collapse where could we be in five hundred years? A thousand?

[spodefly]

Uh, search NSA data for anti-social(ist) comments like yours and send a drone your way?

If the computers get fast enough, they can detect your non-conformist post and have the drones Hellfire your position within moments ... think about that next time you are about to hit the "Post" button ... :)

[dp0622]

I really believed that until this head injury caused personality changes and defects that made me question my faith.
I felt like if there was a soul my personality wouldn’t change because t of a brain injury.
I also got very bitter because I prayed and prayed and got worse over the span of the year until I had to quit my job. 6 years later I have started working an office job on Staten Island but it is very difficult. My memory and body are not what they were. I have started praying again and hope that with technology and prayer the internal tremors the pulsatile tinnitus the insomnia and the pain can be fixed one day.I know there are people that have it much worse and keep their faith. lots of friends disappear when you get very sick too. Free Republic has become an oasis for me.

[Steely Tom]

...without the need to raise and slaughter animals.

Wissout ze need to raise und SLAUGHTER animalss.

[roadcat]

that’s just a staggering thought. I love reading about stuff like that. my goodness if we don’t collapse where could we be in five hundred years? A thousand?

My response was an optimistic one. Unfortunately, that same technology could create a weapon like the Star Wars Death Star, enabling rearranging atomic particles to destroy planets... leading to the collapse and destruction of society. Oh well, technology changes but people don't! When Oppenheimer pushed the science behind the Manhattan Project to create the first atomic bomb, he didn't realize the destructive forces he unleashed until after the test explosion, remarking with the words from the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

[dp0622]

that’s why i think it would be so hard for an alien intelligence to reach us. They would havet to advance.in a straight line thousands of years without self destruction to invent the technology to but what do I know?. I still don’t know how the hell dinosaurs came before us. does DNA randomly create creatures?it baffles the heck out of me

[steve86]

One of the fastest computer complexes in the world is housed at a National Lab near me. This particular system is engaged mostly in large-scale modelling (millions of independent and dependent variables), such as climate, cosmology and population genetics. Its sister system at Los Alamos is used for weapons research/simulation (design and effect).

[dp0622]

another thing I always wondered is that if dinosaurs didn’t become extinct would they have ever evolved into something intelligent and capable enough of anything other than foraging and existing

[ExGeeEye]

Such a redneck I am...from the title I thought it was a miniature device for modifying firewood.

[dp0622]

must be incredible stuff going on there