Invitation to Joint ICTP-SISSA Webinar Colloquium by Prof. David Wolpert on" The Stochastic Thermodynamics of Computation" on 3 June 2020 at 16:00 hrs

[ICTP/director]

Dear All,

You are most cordially invited to the next Joint ICTP-SISSA Webinar 
Colloquium by Professor David Wolpert on  "The Stochastic Thermodynamics 
of Computation"on Wednesday 3 June at 16:00 hrs

*Pre-registration* is required at the following url: 
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KtSlytVwRyKnC9tsymekRA

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing 
information about joining the webinar.

*Biosketch: * David Hilton Wolpert is an American mathematician, 
physicist and computer scientist. He is a professor at Santa Fe 
Institute. He is the author of three books, three patents, over one 
hundred refereed papers, and has received numerous awards. His name is 
particularly associated with a group of theorems in computer science 
known as "no free lunch". Prof. Wolpert obtained a B.A. in Physics at 
Princeton University (1984), then attended the University of California, 
Santa Barbara, where he took the degrees of M.A. (1987) and Ph.D. 
(1989). More information is available at: davidwolpert.weebly.com

*Abstract: *One of the central concerns of computer science is how the 
resources needed to perform a given computation depend on that 
computation. Moreover, one of the major resource requirements of 
computers—ranging from biological cells to human brains to 
high-performance (engineered) computers—is the energy used to run them, 
i.e. the thermodynamic costs of running them. Those thermodynamic costs 
of performing a computation have been a long-standing focus of research 
in physics, going back (at least) to the early work of Landauer and 
colleagues. However, one of the most prominent aspects of computers is 
that they are inherently non-equilibrium systems. Unfortunately, the 
research by Landauer and co-workers on the thermodynamics of computation 
was done when non-equilibrium statistical physics was still in its 
infancy, severely limiting the scope and formal detail of their 
analyses. The recent breakthroughs in non-equilibrium statistical 
physics hold the promise of allowing us to go beyond those limitations. 
Here I present some initial results along these lines, concerning the 
entropic costs of running (loop-free) digital circuits and Turing 
machines. These results reveal new, challenging engineering problems for 
how to design computers to have minimal thermodynamic costs. They also 
allow us to start to combine computer science theory and stochastic 
thermodynamics at a foundational level, thereby expanding both.

The talk (approx. 40 minutes) will be followed by a question/answer session.

For info, please check the following link: http://indico.ictp.it/event/9311/

We look forward to seeing you online!

With best regards,

Office of the Director, ICTP