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ScienceFading · day 3

Single billiard ball theoretically performs any computation

Researchers show a ball on a specially encoded table can function as a universal Turing machine.

newest coverage 15h agosummary written 12h ago5 pieces NewswiresMastodonGoogle News

What to know

  • A single ball on a spatially encoded billiard table can theoretically function as a universal Turing machine capable of performing any computation.
  • The practical implications are severe: emulating AI would require millions of balls on frictionless surfaces running for decades to replicate milliseconds of computation.
  • The finding illustrates how computational universality can emerge from physical systems, though with prohibitive real-world constraints.
some voices

The finding is intellectually interesting but practically useless given the computational overhead required.

  • “So if you want to emulate an ai you would need millions of balls on spatially encoded frictionless two dimensional surfaces clattering for decades to emulate milliseconds.”

    laprice · Mastodon ↗

ScienceAlert Science journalism outlet

How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articlesposts

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Sep 22yesterdaynow · 12:59 AM ET
  1. 1

    ScienceAlert publishes billiard ball computation finding

    ScienceAlert publishes an article describing theoretical research showing that a single ball on a billiard table can theoretically perform any computation.

    “A Single Ball on a spatially encoded billiard table is able to serve as a universal turing machine.”
    — laprice, Mastodon commenter · source
    1. 1 outlet A Single Ball on a Billiard Table Can Theoretically Perform Any Computation

      first by ScienceAlert, 2d ago

    • laprice@beige.party

      A Single Ball on a spatially encoded billiard table is able to serve as a universal turing machine. So if you want to emulate an ai you would need millions of balls on spatially encoded frictionless two dimensional surfaces clattering for decades to emulate milliseconds. The Pachinko machine. https://www. sciencealert.com/a-single-ball…

      laprice@beige.partyMastodon1d agoview on Mastodon ↗

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