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Terminator857 t1_j9q4j53 wrote

Reply to comment by Golfer345 in Been reading Ray Kurzweil’s book “The Singularity is Near”. What should I read as a prerequisite to comprehend it? by Golfer345

Are you saying you don't understand any of those terms?

DNA?

Quantum mechanics = Science of doing these at the smallest scale.

None of that is necessary for understanding the main concept of the book, which is: soon we will have very smart computers.

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Golfer345 OP t1_j9qbj65 wrote

Of course I know the basic concept of all those things, I’m referring mainly to how Kurzweil seems to continuously talk about how somehow computer parts as we know them today such as computer chips will be replaced with biological parts that have been harnessed for computational purposes . He went in depth talking about how the different states of the subatomic particles can be treated in the same fashion as 1s and 0s computer code.

At least this is what I gathered from reading Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. Am I right ? Correct me if I’m wrong . If I’m right , how in laymen terms could this work? All his detailed explanations on this fly over my head

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phunkjunk t1_j9rlyil wrote

The way you explain it here means that you do understand it in laymen’s terms. You could go deeper but then you’re going beyond the laymen.

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quantummufasa t1_j9qbh5g wrote

I haven't read it in like a decade but quantum effects aren't relevant at that scale

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Terminator857 t1_j9qhf4x wrote

For a thinking machine a smaller machine is more efficient than a larger machine, so yes quantum effects are very relevant and used in design of today's microchips. For example: the problem of quantum tunnelling.

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quantummufasa t1_j9qzvt1 wrote

For microchips yes, but is it relevant for neurons?

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Terminator857 t1_j9rf3ht wrote

I thought the context was artificial neurons, which are executed in microchips.

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quantummufasa t1_j9rnn14 wrote

One transistor is loosely analogous to one neuron but definitely not the same.

But then to have enough transistors to simulate all the neurons needed you will need to consider quantum effects to design them, nvm.

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