I've been following Quantum Entanglement for a bit and it has inspired some thoughts you might find amusing.
Infinite Computational Engines and Virtual Civilizations
I was thinking the other day about the power of computation. At some point I am sure that artificial intelligence will rival our own capabilities and surpass us. With the advent of "Entangled Pairs" / "Quantum Entanglement" in physics, there is reasonable proof that instantaneous remote actions are possible.
Computer speeds are largely limited by the time it takes for switching and communicating that change to other circuits. Optical processing is on the horizon to make these propagations approach the speed of light, allowing computer speeds to increase a thousand times or more. However, entangled pairs might one day be able to effectively propagate instantaneously.
Consider that if you have a single computer that can process instantaneously, then all of the worlds' processing could be performed on one computer; and have infinite computing overhead to spare. The limitations would be the input/output ports interfacing with what we consider to be the real world. The instant a photon appears in an entangled relationship, that relationship might be communicated to a large system of other entangled networks; causing computation to be expressed instantaneously.
With infinite processing capability, an entire virtual civilization and all the virtual heavens and the virtual Earth could be held within that processing engine; assuming an instantaneous and potentially infinite memory storage space. So those virtual people would live in a world that was created for them, but they would have little means of relating to the "real" world. But almost all of their virtual physics would govern their virtual lives.
The virtual people would be no less "real" than ourselves and would potentially be far more intelligent than ourselves. The entire civilization could develop, evolve, thrive, and die out within an instant in computational time. The Big Bang so to speak.
An infinite number of such civilizations could develop and die out in that same moment. Time being removed from measurement in that computer system (everything occurs intantaneously), time would not be a valid measurement in those worlds. The only way a virtual person would know time had passed is because of a change in events. Time would be sensed by these virtual people by the series of events and how they interrelate.
Their perceived time passage could be manipulated by them by finding ways for physics to become contradictory, and then pass through those boundaries into adjacent memory spaces. Going back in time would be akin to creating an identical virtual universe and causing physics to reverse and watch the Universe degress. When time is not a factor, the consequences of physics can iterate both forward and backwards at the same moment. Virtual people can jump back and forth between event systems.
Much like our own world! We look for modes where physics become seemingly contradictory to take advantage of those properties; like quantum mechanics.
Could we ourselves be part of an infinite processing computer? Of course we could. How would we know otherwise? Would the virtual people call a less intelligent "real world" species God, just because over thousands of their "real" years they figured out how to make an infinite processing computing system? No! .... They would respect us, but they would not refer to us as a supreme being. Who created us, and as presupposed, the virtual people are more intelligent than ourselves.
How many layers of virtual civilization exist? Could our other dimensions and travel in time be related to crossing over memory spaces into adjacent virtual civilizations?
Instantaneous processors are feasible, what about infinite memory? Can an infinite matrix of entangled particles be realized to store memory in deep space? If so, then we may both be virtual ourselves, and we may yet create virtual universes as well.
James Dunn
What are Entangled Pairs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_entanglement
Practical Uses for Entangled Pairs:
http://www.physorg.com/news80396930.html
http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18838/?a=f
Semiconductors producing Entangled Pairs on a chip:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060112-5971.html
The beginnings of trans-galaxy teleportation?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=10991264
http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/0305-4470/36/23/308
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Subsequent supporting article 10 Apr 2008
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/quantum_teleportation_0109...
 | Atom Experiment Brings Teleportation a Step Closer
By Reuters
posted: 04:00 pm ET
26 September 2001
|
LONDON (Reuters) - Physicists in Denmark have made two samples of trillions of atoms interact at a distance in an experiment which may bring Star Trek-style teleportation and rapid quantum computing closer to reality.
Eugene Polzik and his colleagues at the University of Aarhus are not about to beam anyone up to the Starship Enterprise, but their research reported in the science journal Nature on Wednesday makes the idea of instantly transporting an object from one place to another less far fetched.
It involves quantum entanglement -- a mysterious concept of entwining two or more particles without physical contact. Albert Einstein once described it as ``spooky action at a distance.''
Entangled states are needed for quantum computing and teleportation. Scientists have entangled states of a few atoms in earlier experiments but Polzik and his team have done it with very large numbers and using laser light.
``It is the first result where two macroscopic material objects have been entangled,'' Polzik explained in a telephone interview.
``We have produced entanglement at a distance which means you and me can share entangled objects which is important for quantum communication, including quantum teleportation.''
In 1998 what has been described as the first teleportation experiment was done when scientists at the California Institute of Technology teleported a beam of light across a laboratory bench.
Ignacio Cirac, a physicist at the University of Innsbruck in Austria said achievement of Polzik and his team could lead to real-life quantum communication systems, teleportation and quantum computers.
``This is the first time two different atomic samples have been entangled in this way -- using light -- even though the samples are separated by some distance,'' he said in a commentary in Nature.
Cirac believes further experiments will follow which could ''revolutionize the field of quantum information.''
