Ask HN: Books etc. about Heisenberg uncertainty principle in CS, software?

3 points·spacetimeuser5··4 comments

Please recommend books or other resources where Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is mentioned with application to CS, software, computer hardware etc. Thanks

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The ACTUAL Heisenberg uncertainty principle does not have any effect on software, or on normal computer hardware such as cpus. The problem where an error goes away when you try to look for it is unrelated to any actual quantum effect. Bug analysts are only using the word 'Heisenberg' as a metaphor. It only confuses people. Please stick to 'observer effect' instead.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect_(information...

https://lonesysadmin.net/2010/01/05/heisenberg-monitoring/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisenbug

I was listening to Science of Everything podcast by James Fodor (probably) on podbean.com for a 6 part "How computers work". He sort of is studying for a PhD or something, and he mentioned (in the 2nd part) that the uncertainty principle is actually applied in computer electronics for electron energies.

> actually applied in computer electronics

For transistor design, yes, so they can eliminate the effect and cancel it. The operation of the final chip is not affected by QM uncertainty, even though the individual electrons are.

I think a good start is to study why a signal can be time-limited or band-limited, but not both. Signal processing textbooks study this.

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