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Of computing and growth | viznut

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Computers are universal calculators. Computational universality, formulated mathematically by Alonzo Church and Alan Turing in the 1930s, means that the set of possible computational tasks is the same regardless of the structure of the machine. Even the largest modern supercomputers or the most futuristic quantum computers cannot do anything that a fifty-year-old IBM mainframe or a small microcontroller hidden in a toaster could not do if programmed properly – given enough storage capacity, time and energy. The development of computing capacity in respect to matter and energy has been successfully described to this day by Moore's law, discovered in 1965 by Gordon Moore[i]: every two years, the amount of electronic components (transistors) that can be crammed into the same space can be doubled. The fastest and most expensive supercomputer of the 1970s, the Cray 1, consumed 115 kilowatts of electricity, while today a microchip costing a few euros and consuming perhaps a watt of electrici

Of computing and growth | viznut Published in Niin & Näin 4/2022 . This is a machine-assisted translation of the Finnish original Of computing and growth Computers are universal calculators. Computational universality, formulated mathematically by Alonzo Church and Alan Turing in the 1930s, means that the set of possible computational tasks is the same regardless of the structure of the machine. Even the largest modern supercomputers or the most futuristic quantum computers cannot do anything that a fifty-year-old IBM mainframe or a small microcontroller hidden in a toaster could not do if pro

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