Going Round in Circles: Landauer vs. Norton on the Thermodynamics of Computation

Entropy

James Ladyman¹ 

[1] Department of Philosophy, University of Bristol, Cotham House, Cotham Hill, Bristol BS6 6JL, UK

关键词: Landauer’s Principle;    thermodynamics;    computation;   

DOI  :  10.3390/e16042278

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

There seems to be a consensus among physicists that there is a connection between information processing and thermodynamics. In particular, Landauer’s Principle (LP) is widely assumed as part of the foundation of information theoretic/computational reasoning in diverse areas of physics including cosmology. It is also often appealed to in discussions about Maxwell’s demon and the status of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. However, LP has been challenged. In his 2005, Norton argued that LP has not been proved. LPSG offered a new proof of LP. Norton argued that the LPSG proof is unsound and Ladyman and Robertson defended it. However, Norton’s latest work also generalizes his critique to argue for a no go result that he purports to be the end of the thermodynamics of computation. Here we review the dialectic as it currently stands and consider Norton’s no go result.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland