Philosophizing about new non-binary computation

Joakim Grundh

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So let me have your thoughts about this!

A philosophical review on the possibility of more than binary computation.


A computer works by processing information, and swapping in in between its memory sub systems. Using the active memory banks and the swapping to the passive memories and then reintegrate that stored information to continue processing with a longer, or more complex, information chain. To my knowledge this is only done by binary information bits relaying on the on-off switching through electrical circuitry. That is to say, the basic information carrying unit is either positive or negative.

I do not claim to know anything of the new quantum computers and this should not be read as alluding to such a computation.

Instead I propose that we switch our binary system to something with more variables. Many might have a hard time conceiving such an idea. And I am in no position to speak about the practical building or physical challenges of the realization of the idea.

When I speak of for example octinary computation this is not to be understood as the subsystem of interpretation of the binary electric circuitry such as for example in the hexadecimal color determinations available for program languages. Rather it is the physical smallest unit I propose to increase.

Computer speed and informational complexity

When using a binary electricity smallest unit you increase the capacity of the computation by raising memory, i.e the length of the sequential binary units. Or by raising the frequency, how many on-off switches the electric circuitry can perform per time unit. You also have to have the transformation of the sequential information string from the computing part to its memory functions. This makes up how much information is manageable to be computed in a certain time interval, or rather in a length of information. Or what could be called the computational power.

In a line of information with binary units you get a starting point of 2, on or off, which then factors in the length of the strings of information. So a string of information with 1 unit have 2 possible values, and 2 would have 4 and so forth. If we then can use something that doesn't rest on the binary electrical system we could then have, in an octinary system, 8 values in 1 unit, 64 in 2 and so forth. The exponential value of this information handling I think is clearly visible. And should motivate further research.

How to go above physical binary units?

With my limited knowledge about the practical side of realizing these I ideas I see at least three ways to achieving this. One is using sound and resonating mediums. That is, the computational part would use the highest number of states that can be resonated from the computational part to the memory functions. If we assume you would use a scale of eight different pitches that would give us a basic computational unit of octinary rather than binary information processing. What would be needed to accomplish this would be something that can transmit the pitch, i.e vibrate, and a resonating medium to memorize the sequential information string. I can't see how this should be a big challenge since we easily can produce the different pitches by electrical stimulation of a medium that start to oscillate producing the pitch. And for the receptive medium it should be fairly easy to have some plasma crystals or similar medium to resonate and gain its structure, i.e the informational octinary bit.

Another would be to use light as a medium, and one could then use intersections of the light pulse to receive a determination in memory from the outputting source. This kind of system would use a medium which upon simulation refracts the light into the targeted informational states. As to how high of a number the smallest information unit would be here, I do not profess to speculate about. But it seems as it would be dependent upon how big a difference is needed in the light spectra to distinguish the separate informational bits into something that can be sequentially managed. In theory it would be possible to make get the number as high as needed.

Will it be faster?

The speed of computation is basically just a matter of how fast you can write and interpret strings of information. The computers of today are probably highly effective in operating the binary input medium for information processing. And whether a shift to higher than binary units for information processing would be faster off course depends on what the time intervals would be in-between for example the sound emitting pitches.

But also, it will depend on the software, or programming languages then used. And we would probably use different units depending on what kind of computations we are writing our programs for.

Now if this has any value I leave to those more informed about how computations work, since I only got a spark of intuition regarding the matter. And off-course wanted to share this in case it will benefit and further humankind.


Joakim Grundh
joakim.grundh@blixtmail.se
enrauk@hotmail.com
 
You are concise, you are humble in your unknowing approach, and you seem to have high aptitude... But i just read this whole thing and I'm not exactly sure what to think.. it reminds me of vaporware really but hey thats okay we can't condone or neglect the unknowable!
 
Well you have to take into consideration that I do not really know what terms to use. And the thought hit me after probing how a computer works from some more knowledgeable friends.

Vaporware I haven't heard about before. And when I check it out it doesn't make me any wiser when trying to understand why you mention it.

Anyhow I am glad for any kind of response, so I can develop the idea or put it out of my mind.

Like if someone where to say, no that is not possible since.... What that might be.
 
And I can tell you, I have no personal interest in the computer industry. Just use it very basic to write documents and play games, socialize and work with photos etc.

But since no-one seemed to understand this intuition of mine, I figured it would be better to just leave it out there and see if maybe someone else would appreciate it. :p
 
I think I understand your question because I also have thought of why not use more than binary?

Well the simplest answer is physics.

It's not physically possible in an electrical computer because what makes memory is a charge or a voltage which is read on or off or read as plus or minus.

You can see then how binary is used, because we don't have a physical system such as DNA with 4 instead of 2 switches.

Also DNA reads 3 dimensionally and computers read two dimensionally.

DNA has very complex algorithms to take codons and write them into structures where as we have simple algorithms to take binary and write that into information.
 
Vaporware I haven't heard about before. And when I check it out it doesn't make me any wiser when trying to understand why you mention it.

Philosophize - speculate or theorize about fundamental or serious issues, especially in a tedious or pompous way.

Vaporware - software or hardware that has been advertised but is not yet available to buy, either because it is only a concept or because it is still being written or designed.

This discussion reminds me of HP's "The Machine"
 
I am quite certain that I've read about mediums that shape themselves from sound. Symatics is a study of it I've heard. Now then comes the question of how to interpret this and use it again at the active parts, i.e the resonance creating part.

But as I said, I don't have more than a basic intuition of it so :)
 
More than 2 states (binary, 0 and 1) is what Quantum Computing is based off of.

I don't see how quantum mechanics would have anything to do with changing the binary system.

Binary is binary because we use Boolean logic to dictate true or false states.

For any computing to be more than binary you would need to write code that no longer is concerned with true or false in the traditional sense.

For instance there are over 20 amino acids which each have a corresponding codon.

You could say that those codons are binary states, if AGA true then Lysine else check next codon state.

But the simple fact is DNA algorithm is written to read those complex states. Where as we have reduced that complexity to true false for a number of reasons.
 
I don't see how quantum mechanics would have anything to do with changing the binary system.

Binary is binary because we use Boolean logic to dictate true or false states.

For any computing to be more than binary you would need to write code that no longer is concerned with true or false in the traditional sense.

For instance there are over 20 amino acids which each have a corresponding codon.

You could say that those codons are binary states, if AGA true then Lysine else check next codon state.

But the simple fact is DNA algorithm is written to read those complex states. Where as we have reduced that complexity to true false for a number of reasons.

Quantum computer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Uses superpositions of states rather than just states.
 
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