= Caleb Scharf = == The Ascent of Information == === 2021 003.54 SCH Tigard Library === ----- I wanted to like this book. Rather than surprising, it was prolix and sometimes inaccurate. .p37 planetwide rate of energy production, early 1800s 100 GW, year 2000 "in excess of a fearsome" 17 TW . Source https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-consumption . Shows US power consumption decreasing by 1% in 2019; efficiency is improving, and digital controls help with tht . The earth absorbs and re-emits perhaps 1 kW/m2 solar, the sun-facing disk is about 1e14 m2, so the Earth radiates perhaps P=1e17 W at a top-of-stratosphere temperature of 200K or so. Emission is proportional to T^4, the derivative ΔT/ΔP ≈ T/4P ≈ 200/4E17 = 5E-16, so the heating from the "fearsome 17TW" is 5E-16*1.7E13 = 0.0085 Kelvins. . The actual "fearsome" question is how the energy is created; CO₂ from carbon combustion adds perhaps 3000x long term global heating compared to the technically-useful energy produced. Nuclear would be vastly safer, especially if the fuel was decommissioned weapon fissionables intentionally adulterated with U238 or Pu240. . hence ... fooey ---- .p37 47 GW for computation ... growing by 40% per year . Source: Nature 561 9/2018 163-166 doi:10.1038/d41586-01-06610-y . https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06610-y . shows graph from Anders implying data center energy (eyeball) 670 TWh/y (76 GW) in 2020, 2980 TWh/y (340 GW) in 2030, 4.44X growth, 16% growth per year. . the Green Growth graph shows ICT purchased half of corporate renewable energy (2GW) in 2016. . HOWEVER, the last actual datapoint was 2017, so everything after that is P.O.M.A. ... Pulled Out of My Ass . This text quote is more accurate: "Last year’s IEA report estimated that although data-centre workloads will shoot up — tripling 2014 levels by 2020 — efficiency gains mean that their electricity demand might sneak up only by 3%" . 3% in 6 years is 0.5% per year, not 16%. Here's the cited Anders article: https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/6/1/117 .Figure one shows (expected) total consumer device power usage '''dropping''' from 1050 TWH/year in 2010 to 670 TWH/year in 2030, or 120 GW to 76 GW. Customers want battery life, not hand heaters. What the graphs are actually measuring is the rapid globalization of internet access, combined with the rapid drop of energy per customer as electronic efficiency increases. Most of the world has some form of internet access in 2020; unless we train ants to use "smart" phones, we are approaching peak power, not exponential runaway. . p040 "But the smaller the chips get, the more inefficient it gets to push electrons around all that increasingly narrow material" ... BULLSHIT .scaling: length goes down, wire side area goes down, voltage goes down, capacitance goes down, and energy is CV² . n040 p305 [[ https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnins.2013.00118/pdf | Hasler Marr 2013 ]] . p040 Single bit of neural information, 10,000 ATP -> 3200 eV -> 5e-19J = 0.5 aJ, CMOS a few aJ . n040 p305 [[ https://www.cns.nyu.edu/csh/csh04/Articles/Laughlin-etal-98.pdf | The metabolic cost of neural information 1998 ]] . n043 p305 [[ https://assets.pubpub.org/d8wct41f/31611263538139.pdf | S. Nakamoto Bitcoin paper ]] . p047 Bitcoin 7.7 GW .n047 p306 [[ https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption | 2021 78TWh/y = 8.9GW ]] .n048 p306 [[ https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/16/magazine/beyond-the-bitcoin-bubble.html?searchResultPosition=1 | Beyond the Bitcoin Bubble ]] contradicts Scharf . p051 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yann_LeCun | Yann LeCun ]] in 2025 VP Chief AI Scientist at [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_Platforms | Meta ]] .p055 US consumed 200 billion punch cards in 1967 .p071 misdefined [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyquist_rate | Nyquist rate ]] as signalling rate - no, multilevel can add bits inversely proportional to logarithm of noise . p096 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_adversarial_network | Generative Adversarial Networks ]] . p104 'When Darwin throws "mental endowments" into the mix, our modern alarm bells also go off.' PC-BS . p108 'Any failure to be accurate, precise, or quick will not turn out well' .also BS, Darwin made many many mistakes and LEARNED from them. No risk, few gains. . p111 mirror image perceived same thing, except letters like b and d, we override or undo mirror invariance . BS; knowing left from right essential to navigation . p113 [[ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5657245/ | intrinsic forgetting ]] . p121 [[ https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/krwood/old-weather-ww2 | old weather from ship's logs ]] . p121 [[ https://www.epfl.ch/labs/dhlab/ | Digital Humanities Laboratory ]] . p123 Milkweed emetic for birds, monarch butterfly caterpillars consume it to make birds vomit . p124 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolvability | evolvability ]] . p134 altruism propagates shared genes in relatives, easier than having children . p135 kin selection [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kin_selection#Hamilton's_rule | Hamilton's Rule ]] . p138 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_gene_transfer | horizontal gene transfer ]] between species by bacteria . p138 1600 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_regulatory_network | gene regulation molecules ]] in humans . p139 epigenetic changes persist over generations . p141 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_canons | Tripitaka ]] . p142 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16S_ribosomal_RNA | 16S rRNA ]] . p143 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Rebek | Julius Rebek ]] synthetic autocatalytic molecules . p143 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quine_(computing) | quines ]] software replicators . p144 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_novo_gene_birth | De novo gene birth ]] evolve from noncoding DNA stretches . p144 perhaps remnants of earlier genetic experiments . p148 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holobiont | Holobiont ]] symbiotic ecological unit . p148 [[ https://theoccasionalinformationist.com/2022/11/15/dataome-rising/ | dataome ]] . p149 [[ https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/668166 | A symbiotic view of life: we have never been individuals ]] . p150 [[ http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/bdg/pdfs_bdg/2016%20Fall/Doolittle_Booth_holobiont_evolution_2016.pdf | It's the song, not the singer ]] holobiosis . p152 dataome increases energy use but changes planet. "conflict" or opportunity . p150 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agouti-signaling_protein | ASIP ]] and [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanocortin_1_receptor | MC1R ]] genes, prey with lighter colored coats in lighter environments . p154 '''corg''' author's neologism for "core algorithm" metaphor for convergent adaptations . p159 predictable versus [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9 | Poincaré ]] mathematical "chaos" . p160 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_algorithm | Evolutionary Algorithms ]] . p164 evolutionary biologist [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Krakauer_(scientist) | David Krakauer ]] .n164 p319 [[ https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12064-020-00313-7.pdf | The Information Theory of Individuality ]] . p169 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C6H6 | C₆H₆ ]] 217 isomers . p171 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage | bacteriophage ]] [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lytic_cycle | lytic ]] or [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysogenic_cycle | lysogenic ]] reproduction . p172 viruses switch modes based on signalling [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitrium | arbitrium peptides ]] . p174 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poliovirus | poliovirus ]] [[ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5644717/ | Sociovirology ]] . p174 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extracellular_vesicleect | extracellular vesicles ]] . p177 [[ https://www.catenane.net/pdfs/articles/2007mdpaper.pdf | information ratchet ]] . p177 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_Imari_Walker | Sara Walker ]] Az.S.U. . p178 [[ https://physics.ucdavis.edu/directory/faculty/james-crutchfield | Jim Crutchfield ]][[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steen_Rasmussen_(physicist) | Steen Rasmussen ]] [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Ikegami | Takashi Ikegami ]] [[ https://www.santafe.edu/people/profile/d-eric-smith| Eric Smith ]] .p181 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokusai | Hokusai ]] [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Wave_off_Kanagawa | The Great Wave off Kanagawa ]] 1831 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanagawa_Prefecture | Kanagawa ]] . p190 [[ https://arxiv.org/pdf/1009.5287 | Toyabe et al . Information heat engine - 2010 ]] . p191 computational bit energy less efficient than biological brain . p192 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landauer%27s_principle | Landauer Limit ]] 3e-21J at 300K . p192 blowfly visual system 1 bit is 1e-14J . p195 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activity-regulated_cytoskeleton-associated_protein | Activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated protein ''Arc'' Gene ]] synaptic activity to [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_potentiation | long term potentiation ]] . 1995 [[ https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.92.12.5734 || Kuhl ]] [[ https://www.cell.com/neuron/pdf/0896-6273(95)90299-6.pdf | Worley ]] . p198 [[ | ]] . p199 [[ | ]] .n199 p322 [[ https://arxiv.org/pdf/1210.7439 David Deutsch | "Constructor Theory" Synthese, 2013 ]] . p202 [[ | ]] . p203 [[ | ]] . p204 [[ | ]] . p207 [[ | ]] . p209 [[ | ]] . p211 [[ | ]] . p212 [[ | ]] . p213 [[ | ]] . p222 [[ | ]] . p225 [[ | ]] . p227 [[ | ]] . p232 [[ | ]] . p234 ... the Great Dying 251 MYA (the Permian-Triassic extinction . Michael Benton, ''When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time'', 2003 . Yadong Sun et al "Lethally Hot Temperatures During the Early Triassic Greenhouse", ''Science'' Oct 2012: p366-70, doi:10.1126/science.1224126 . p234 [[ | ]] . p234 [[ | ]] . p235 [[ | ]] . p235 [[ | ]] . p236 [[ | ]] . p236 [[ | ]] . p236 [[ | ]] . p237 [[ | ]] . p237 [[ | ]] . p238 [[ | ]] . p239 [[ | ]] . p239 [[ | ]] . p240 [[ | ]] . p240 [[ | ]] . p241 [[ | ]] . p241 [[ | ]] . p242 [[ | ]] . p242 [[ | ]] . p243 [[ | ]] . p243 [[ | ]] . p244 [[ | ]] . p244 [[ | ]] . p245 [[ | ]] . p246 [[ | ]] . p246 [[ | ]] . p248 [[ | ]] . p249 [[ | ]] . p249 [[ | ]] . p249 [[ | ]] . p250 [[ | ]] . p251 [[ | ]] . p252 [[ | ]] . p252 [[ | ]] . p253 [[ | ]] . p255 [[ | ]] . p258 [[ | ]] . p259 [[ | ]] . p263 [[ | ]] . p263 [[ | ]] . p265 [[ | ]] . n265 p327 Erling Thyrhaug May 2018 [[ https://research.rug.nl/files/62752763/s41557_018_0060_5.pdf | Identification and characterization of diverse coherences in the Fenna–Matthews–Olson complex ]] . p270 [[ | ]] . p272 [[ | ]] . p272 [[ | ]] . p273 [[ | ]] . p273 Dyson's over-the-top-proposal - two meter shell made from Jupiter, capturing all the Sun's energy. . "Search for artificial stellar sources of infrared radiation", Science June 1960, p1667-68. doi:10.1126/science.131.3414.1667 . Dyson's argument was for Infrared SETI, not the notion that humanity will actually disassemble Jupiter to build a "spherical shell" massing 200 grams per square centimeter (2 tonnes per square meter) at twice Earth radius (3e11 meters). . The gravitational forces on that shell would be enormous, and crush strength "Einsteinian". . The orbital period at R = 2 Re ( ≈ 3e11m ) is 2√2 years ≈ 9e7 seconds, so the gravitational acceleration is . a = R * (2 π / T)² ≈ 1.5e-3 m/s². . The mass of the shell is M = 4 π R² × 2000 kg/m². The total distributed "rim" compression force is M/4 times a: . F = π R² × 2000 kg/m² * 1.5e-3 m/s² . The compression force is distributed over the circumference ( 2 π R ) times the thickness t (3 meters?) so the pressure is . P = F / 2 π R t = 1.5 ( R / t ) Pascals or 1.5e11 Pascals. . Jupiter is mostly hydrogen, a gas at 2 Re radius. If the hydrogen was (somehow) transmuted to perfect diamond, that would result in a compression strength of 470 GPa = 4.7e11 Pascals However, the density of diamond is 3500 kg/m³, so the shell thickness t would be only 0.57 meters, and the required compression strength climbs to 790 GPa. . It is amusing that these numbers are in the same ballpark ... but the bottom line is that a Stapledon-Dyson shell (his term, not "Dyson sphere") is '''just not strong enough ''' that close to the Sun. . And even if it was - over those vast distances, the shell has effectively zero bending strength; restoring forces in a gravity field are negative, and it will rapidly buckle. . At 10 Re, the gravitational force is 25 times smaller than 2 Re, and thickness and the areal mass density is also 25 times smaller, so the compression pressure is 25 times smaller. Diamond would work ... but would still buckle. . A [[ http://server-sky.com/StaDyShell | much thinner shell ]] can be supported by actively adjusted light pressure. . p274 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landauer%27s_principle | Landauer limit ]] ... evasion? . p278 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boltzmann_brain | Boltzmann Brain ]] . n279 p328 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein | Albert Einstein ]] [[ https://www.academia.edu/download/34651272/Physics_and_Reality_by_Albert_Einstein.pdf | Physics and Reality ]] 1936 . n280 p328 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Aaronson | Scott Aaronson ]] 2016 [[ https://arxiv.org/pdf/1306.0159 | The Ghost in the Quantum Turing Machine ]] in [[ https://multcolib.bibliocommons.com/v2/search?query=oclcnum%3A947093872&searchType=bl | The Once and Future Turing ]] . p283 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seth_Lloyd | Seth Lloyd ]] PhyRevLet 88 [[https://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/0110141 | Computational capacity of the universe ]] . p284 "our species ever-dwindling attention space" ... individuals have attention, and some waste it. [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granfalloon | Granfalloon ]] . p286 "Treat information like a natural resource" ... fuzzy thinking . p286 "assigning a price to the "emission" of information ... more fuzzy thinking . p289 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaron_Lanier | Jaron Lanier ]] 2013 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Owns_the_Future%3F | Who Owns The Future ]] Bvtn 303.4833 LAN