🚀 go-pugleaf

              The International Computer Science Institute
                     is pleased to present a talk:

                  Thursday, August 20, 1992  2:00 p.m.

                              PAUL VITANYI
                                  CWI
                                  and
                University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

        ``Mathematical Theory of Thermodynamics of Computation''

           We investigate a new research area: we  are  interested
      in the ultimate thermodynamic cost of computing from x to y.
      Other than its fundamental  importance,  such  research  has
      potential  implications in miniaturization of VLSI chips and
      applications in pattern recognition.

           It turns out that the theory of thermodynamic  cost  of
      computation can be axiomatically developed.  Our fundamental
      theorem connects physics to mathematics, providing  the  key
      that  makes  such a theory possible.  It establishes optimal
      upper and lower bounds on the ultimate thermodynamic cost of
      computation.

           By computing longer and longer, the  amount  of  dissi-
      pated  energy  gets closer to these limits. In fact, one can
      trade time for  energy:  there  is  a  provable  time-energy
      trade-off hierarchy.  The fundamental theorem also induces a
      thermodynamic distance metric.  The  topological  properties
      of  this  metric show that neighborhoods are sparse, and get
      even sparser if they are centered on  random  elements.  The
      proofs use Symmetry of Information in a basic way.

           These notions  also  find  an  application  in  pattern
      recognition.   People  have been looking without success for
      an objective notion of cognitive distance to account for the
      intuitive  notion  of  ``similarity''  of  pictures. Thermo-
      dynamic  considerations  lead  to  a  recursively  invariant
      notion  of cognitive distances.  It turns out that the ther-
      modynamic distance is a universal cognitive  distance  which
      discovers  all effective features used by any cognitive dis-
      tance whatsoever.

                       (Joint work with Ming Li)


        This talk will be held in the Main Lecture Hall at ICSI.
          1947 Center Street, Sixth Floor, Berkeley, CA 94704
       (On Center between Milvia and Martin Luther King Jr. Way)

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