Modern computers are terrible brakes, I wrote about this. Well, a simple example: there are no air battles of pilots with electronic pilots, auto races of people and robot drivers. Even in cycling, robots cannot compete on a par with humans. What we calculate as if “automatically”: how much to turn the steering wheel or pull the steering wheel so that the mechanism follows the trajectory we need - modern processors do not even have time to calculate.
This is a very powerful analog computer.
Well, that is, by the evening the computer will have time to calculate how long it was necessary to turn the steering wheel at that turn. By next evening, he will calculate the next turn. Will there be a bicycle race or air combat by then? This is called "real time mode", and digital superpower computers are disastrously inferior to our brain in terms of the speed of calculations.
But there are completely different computers. They were slightly forgotten, carried away by the increase in the density of transistors per screen unit, but now they are going to return to them. And in some industries they did not forget, because in terms of settlement time they greatly outstrip any brains in general, including ours. For their settlement time is … Equal to zero. They immediately give an answer, like this.
A simple analog computer that can change "programs", although there is no programming language.
This is called: Analog computers.
Electronic Computing Machines, but not digital.
Digital computers have an advantage: they give an accurate answer, to any sign. And they are very easy to reprogram, that is, to change the algorithm. How many languages have been invented. But they are awfully slow. I don't remember, it seems Lem wrote somewhere that these electronic brains crawl like turtles, just at a very high speed. And our brains are flying. But do we always need this precision to the 20th decimal place? Especially if we lose so much in the speed of even simple calculations.
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Analog computers … They can hardly be called computers. They were made in the form of devices, many, because they have their colossal advantage. And they are not even always electronic, they can be anything: mechanical, liquid … Even alive! This is where a real breakthrough can await us!
Analog computer.
But in general, what is it originally, an analog computer? Take a glass that is half full. (And half empty)) We poured 100 ml of water there. Task: find out if we tilted this glass at some angle, what will be the maximum depth?
And now take any programmer you know and ask him to calculate it on a computer. I guarantee that he will refuse: such a sea of calculations must be done and such a number of lines of code must be calculated.
But as soon as we tilt this glass ourselves, we IMMEDIATELY see how the depth of the water in it changes. This is an analog computer.
You find it funny? But in vain. For example, the pressure on the bottom of the glass, which it must withstand, depends on the depth of the water column. And if you find it funny with glasses, then once you find yourself on a submarine or some Titanic that slowly falls on its side, believe me, you will be VERY interested in whether the sides will withstand the water pressure. Or they won't.
A glass of water is generally a typical computer, only its algorithm cannot change. He only measures the height of the water for something in the shape of this glass. But we can give it input data: different amounts of water, different tilt angles. And he will, according to his algorithm, calculate what the height of the water column is with these data. And the shape of this glass can be as complex as you like, you don't need to enter every millimeter of it into a digital computer. And he will calculate - instantly. The answer exists immediately, you just need to tilt the glass and bring the ruler to it.
Expanding the capabilities of this computer is easy. It can be made of a material that varies greatly with temperature: we will connect another block of input data. It can be of any complex shape. True, the answer will not be entirely accurate, approximate. But do we always need the useless precision of digital computers? When you salt the soup, you take a "pinch", and do not count the number of salt crystals and do not weigh them on a jewelry scale.
Do you feel where all this can go? We formalize any task and build an analog computer that gives the answer immediately, without calculations. What is the blood pressure in your heel? And in the knee? It is impossible to calculate the pressure in the circulatory system with all its capillaries with a standard computer. And using an analog computer "our body" - it is enough to simply measure this pressure. The answer is already ready.
Analog computer.
Well, okay with them, with liquids. How much will the seat of a chair bend when a seat of this shape and weight sits on it? Ask the programmer to calculate this, he will refuse. And the task is quite urgent, and an analog computer will immediately give an answer for a given seat and different types of seats, of any complex shape. You just need to put them there and write down the answer. Whether the seat of an alien or a family of laboratory mice: the answer will be ready immediately.
And there are tasks that provide an answer in time. Incandescent lamps, for example, do not go out immediately. How many moments will it go out to the end? We count the temperature of the thread, its thickness, the ambient temperature … But the answer is already ready, it is enough to look at the lamp itself and measure the time.
A simple analog computer that does the most complex mathematical calculations in an elementary way.
Is it possible to make such a process or such a shape of the vessel so that it corresponds to the flight time of the rocket to Mars and gives the answer when it is better to launch it? Of course you can. And in many industries this is exactly what is done: a complex, puzzling model is invented, which is unrealistic to enter into a computer until the end (for example, river beds for shipping or laying a pipeline). And then the result is simply written down, which … Exists as soon as the model is built. Instantly.
Or for example, like here, in the picture. Each vessel is a very complex formula, and the volume of the liquid shows puzzling integrals of this formula. Just add water and write down your answer.
Also, for example, a crystal is a "very complex device" for splitting various rays of light into their component parts. And if a computer is created in the form of some kind of aquarium, with snails-fish-plants as calculating elements, then it will also be self-repairing and self-developing.
And such computers - mechanical, liquid, colloidal, living, aquarium, bacterial, crystalline - are capable of real competition with the human brain.
Large analog computer. He can change programs.
And since modern computers have reached the ceiling of their development, then maybe it's time to pull out half a century old developments from the archives? Let's develop them? To spite the Terminator)))
