cross-posted from: https://wolfballs.com/post/8512
my own personal tl;dr is that supercomputers are using enormous amounts of energy to solve problems in a digital way, so they think certain problems might be solved by designing analog computers
The analogy I think of is the difference between sending a text message to someone in the same room (digital) versus simply speaking to them (using the "analog computer" of your voice), this might be more efficient
or like in some cases it takes a certain amount of time and energy to transport data, whereas the "sneakernet" of just manually delivering a hard drive to someone might be more efficient: https://infogalactic.com/info/Sneakernet
iamtanmay@wolfballs.com 3 years ago
Regarding Data, there already were services from big players like Amazon, where they would send a container truck filled with HDDs to collect your data on site. It was far faster than using high speed broadband.
I work in the German stock exchange. Couple years back, I heard the amount of data they would need to collect and send if an Audit was requested. I forget the exact number, but it would take days with broadband.
I had suggested using lots of USB drives instead to copy the data in a few hours instead.
On the other hand with Analog computing in general.... its really hard to find good solutions across the board. Generally you would find a few use cases which are really efficient, maybe like generating random numbers for encryption.
The human brain is a great example. Its great in all the fields we want AI, but it can't do number crunching, its a trillion times less performant and efficient at it than a mobile phone. Lots of limitations.