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5.0 out of 5 stars
Can Computers Still Improve?, January 2, 2004
This review is from: Visions of the Future: Physics and Electronics (Paperback)
Perhaps you read Scientific American? If so, and you are comfortable with the level of treatment, then how about the British equivalent? That is basically the level of treatment in this book of research topics at the boundary of physics and engineering.
The most relevant chapters are probably those discussing how we can take the semiconductor progress and keep pushing, pushing and pushing it ever onwards. Moore's Law, you understand. Current industry techniques may give us another 10 years. But what then? Various new physical phenomena are suggested in the book as possible novel ways to encode and change information. Of course, when these will prove economically feasible is totally open at this time. But you can hope.
On a "purer" note, the book also has a fascinating discussion of how human consciousness may derive from fundamental physical processes. Think of this as continuing the narrative from Roger Penrose's "Emperor's New Mind"...
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