Re:What is quantum field theory and why is it incomplete?
by atty on Sunday August 14, 2022 @12:14PM
(#32460418)
Honestly I’ve never considered an analog computer, and I’m a physicist but not a lattice expert. While an analog computer would let you use real numbers, you’d still need a way to store state at every point in space, which would lead to the infinite memory problem (and you’d need infinite compute to operate on the infinite memory). Perhaps there’s a clever way to get around that, but my suspicion is that if it were possible someone would have done it already.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:What is quantum field theory and why is it incomplete?
by MacsHeadroom on Monday August 15, 2022 @07:53AM
(#32468511)
The complex plane does have infinite memory.
A Turing machine can perform all discrete computations with a single bit. An idealized analog computer can compute anything with a "single" complex plane.
Our (mis)conception of there being an "infinite memory problem" when the complex plane is infinite is analogous to flatlanders getting hung up about a "discrete bit memory problem."