Random "Things You Didn't Know"

[lorothrigs]

Happened to StumbleUpon (http://www.stumbleupon.com/) a very intriguing video. It's random stuff you didn't know, it starts off a little slow, but the technical stuff at the end is amazing.

EatMyShorts.net - Things You Didn't Know (http://www.eatmyshorts.net/movie/1523/.html)

[Gauntlet2021]

wow...some of that stuff was uninterested but some was actually surprising. Now I have more interesting things to talk about!

[brad.dude03]

Interesting... and it shows how a Communist society can actually succeed, if not dominate the world.... this could be the cold war all over again. A fundamental battle between Democracy and Communism. And since China, as this video highlights, is such a super power, the US might be knocked off the top sometime soon.... I think it's good that China is succeeding though, they have a very large population, and that is a huge country to look after, but they're doing it, and they're doing it well.

Very interesting indeed.

[GST_Nemisis]

name this country

Richest in the worl
Largest military
Centre of world business and finance
Strongest education system
World centre of innovation and invention
Currency the world standard of value
Highest standard of living

ENGLAND!!!

you all thought china didnt you ;)

i disagree with computer being more powerful than the human mind. if you could even conceve brain processing power as bits and bytes it would be so immense that i doubt it could ever be matched and even if it could it would not be the same as a brain works especially seeing as with all the technology and innovation we have at the moment cant even begin to understand it.

also 10 trillion bits is thess than you think, devide 10 trillion by 8, then 1024, then 1024 again and then 1024 once more and you have it in Gigabytes per second (GiB to be precise). its approximately 1250Gb which is very fast but only about 1.25Tb which is easier to understand than 10 trillion bits. its approximately 1700 wc3 CDs per second. while the video claims techonology will increase rapidly dont take everything it says to heart, fibre optics are reaching a physical limit at about 100Tb (which is incredably fast) due to reaction time of photodiode and phototransistors. this will result in a need for parallel communications instead of serial transmision to increase data rates.

direct computer processing is reaching limits to due heat restrictions and silicon reaction times. clocks of over 10Ghz can be difficult to implement in the home which is why companies have opted for (the more effiecient and effective) multicore solutions.

this vid claims that technology will be immense very soon but consider this, in the 1960s (only 40 years ago, in your parents or perhaps your lifetime) people thought we would be living on the moon, flying hover cars, taking jetpacks to work, having TV beamed directly into our brains, food which makes us learn and plently more BS that never happened. take this vid with a grain of salt, but it is still very intresting.

[Denu]

I dont think the human ego would allow for ourselves to be surpassed by machines. We would eventually stop trying to improve computers so much and start trying to improve uppon the human brain.

And fibre optics would become obsolete. There is currently a computer that uses atoms to represent data or something (I dunno really know all the techno mumbojumbo) and since atoms can exist in nearly an unlimited amount of places (or something like that... mumbojumbo) there is basically an unlimitted amount of information you can store in a single computer. I think the whole atom existing in multiple places has to do with Quantum Physics... all techno mumbojumbo that I dont care for.

[GST_Nemisis]

yeh i have read of such things, nano-computing, it seem positive but very early. its one thing to apprichiate new research but another to predict the future on it.

[brad.dude03]

Hey, Dan you, you noob, it's appreciate lol. apprichiate. You amaze me :P Nano-computing sounds promising, but I casn forsee it being very expensive, and don't expect it ti make its way into homes for a long time yet.

[Shados]

Pfft, screw nano computing. Instead, let's build us a quantum supercomputer that harnessess the power of an infinte number of supercomputers in alternate realites, RAWR! (Think on this: Is there physically enough possible combinations of neurons firing to be able to produce every thought possible? Doubt it, so maybe human brains generate some sort of quantum effect - the mind)

-*meow*

EDIT: Surpass the computational abilities of the human race? Un-fucking-likely, I remember from like a year back some massive supercomputer took 3 days to answer a yes-no question about whether an extremely high number was a prime or not. An autistic savant did it instantly. You can't claim anything can go beyond the human brain, because we know fuck all about the human brain.

[lorothrigs]

According to Williamette University, the brain has 10 billion neurons, with each neuron processing power at approximately 100 Hz each.

Therefore, the processing power of the human brain is 1,000 GHz.

So if computational power doubles yearly, and today a $1000 processor is approximately 2.6 GHz.

1000 = 2.6*2^n

Which means that n = 8.5872726614083572310844650637005.

So, in about 8 to 9 years the modern processor then will be as good as the human brain

[GST_Nemisis]

that would only be true if you were to ignor all the physical and technological contraints surrounding the development and implementation of a 1THz processor. lets just say the first 5 Ghz were easy, id like to see them make the rest.

[brad.dude03]

exactly. And now that we've reached the constraints of size and cooling, that no longer applies, because we have stopped trying to get the impossible pure ghz, and instead we have focused on spreading tasks across multiple cores, a la Core 2 Duo.

Offtopic: A 3.6 GHZ single core processor is like, dirt cheap, so saying a 2.6 GHZ one is a thousand bukcs is a bit off. Even a 2.4 GHZ Core 2 Du is only about 300 bucks.

[GST_Nemisis]

i think the main problem is the reaction time of the silicon (or the semi-conducter material), i mean electrons are limited in the speed that they can pass through a semi-conducter, its not infinate.

[lorothrigs]

exactly. And now that we've reached the constraints of size and cooling, that no longer applies, because we have stopped trying to get the impossible pure ghz, and instead we have focused on spreading tasks across multiple cores, a la Core 2 Duo.

Offtopic: A 3.6 GHZ single core processor is like, dirt cheap, so saying a 2.6 GHZ one is a thousand bukcs is a bit off. Even a 2.4 GHZ Core 2 Du is only about 300 bucks.

I was looking at Intel DUal Core processors on newegg for 1,159...maybe there was something else about them. i dunno.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=50001028+40000343+4023&Subcategory=343&description=&Ntk=&srchInDesc=

[Shados]

So if computational power doubles yearly, and today a $1000 processor is approximately 2.6 GHz.

Dude, I can get a 3.2 GHz dual core cpu for $180 AUD. Also, that estimate on neuron power is not only bullshit, but it's not counting in all the connecting grey matter, which recent research has shown may play a much bigger part in the workings of the brain than previously realised.

-*meow*

[GST_Nemisis]

I was looking at Intel DUal Core processors on newegg for 1,159...maybe there was something else about them. i dunno.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=50001028+40000343+4023&Subcategory=343&description=&Ntk=&srchInDesc=

thats expensive because its an old processor and not in production anymore, so if someone wants it they gotta pay silly prices because its so hard to get a hold of. why anyone would want that peice of junk i dont know.

atm the most you can spend is approximately £650 on a quad core intel process which is 4x2.66GHz. this is very fast but a long way off a 1THz processor.

[brad.dude03]

I was looking at Intel DUal Core processors on newegg for 1,159...maybe there was something else about them. i dunno.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=50001028+40000343+4023&Subcategory=343&description=&Ntk=&srchInDesc=

What a ripoff lol i'm getting a Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHZ for 300 bucks....

[Shados]

What a ripoff lol i'm getting a Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHZ for 300 bucks....

Dude, I can get a 3.2 GHz dual core cpu for $180 AUD.

Joo lose.

-*meow*

[brad.dude03]

Is it a Core 2 Duo? Because if it'd not, I don't want it. We have 3.4 GHZ Pentium D's here for less then that, but they suck, and they're only half doual core and are obsolete as hell, so I don't want one.

If per chance it is a Core 2 Duo (or you manage to convince me otherwise) the cash is in the mail xD

[Shados]

Half dual core? Heh, that makes no sense :X. Anyway, the one I was talking about is a Intel D945 Dual Core, unfortunately for you. However, I can get a Intel Core 2 Duo Conroe E6700 for around 300 CAD, so suffer. I get .2 more ghz RAWR.

[GST_Nemisis]

Half dual core?

yeh its a dual core people have snapped the pins off to fit in their old machines lol :P (not really)

I get .2 more ghz RAWR.

for serious that .2 can go a long way if you treat it right! its like an extra 5% performance which is good.

[brad.dude03]

Hey man, the 2.4 is the most overclockable processor ever released. There is a CPU in the overclocking hall of fame that was knocked up to 5.8 GHZ and it's a 2.4 Core 2 Duo. Mind you, it has nitrogen cooling, which I can't afford, but at least I can get a lot of extra juice out of mine without wrecking it or making my system unstable :D