Equation 1 · The Arrow of Time and the Engine of Evolution
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the temperature. Read the equation part by part below; each part has a contextual explanation and a link to its mathematical background.
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Writing a record redundantly is one thing; erasing one is a different, and thermodynamically cheaper to state, act. Rolf Landauer’s 1961 analysis established that any logically irreversible operation — one whose output does not determine a unique input, such as resetting a one-bit memory from either of two states to a single standard state — must, in an isothermal environment at temperature T , dissipate at least a fixed minimum quantity of heat to the surroundings:
Sources cited in the article section
- [2] Decoherence, einselection, and the quantum origins of the classical ↗
- [3] Irreversibility and Heat Generation in the Computing Process ↗
- [4] The thermodynamics of computation: a review ↗
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