Modern computers aren’t close to the thermodynamic limits of computation either.
A few years ago I wondered whether I could power my laptop just by streaming data to it, assuming I had a szilard engine as a charging device. Energy via the cloud! But sadly at room temperature, it would require an amount of data approximately equal to the size of the entire internet to be delivered to the laptop every second. And this is not including energy loss for wires and other parts.
At the limit, a lot of bits delivers very little power, but on the flip side, at the limit a little power could deliver a lot of bits.
Modern computers aren’t close to the thermodynamic limits of computation either.
A few years ago I wondered whether I could power my laptop just by streaming data to it, assuming I had a szilard engine as a charging device. Energy via the cloud! But sadly at room temperature, it would require an amount of data approximately equal to the size of the entire internet to be delivered to the laptop every second. And this is not including energy loss for wires and other parts.
At the limit, a lot of bits delivers very little power, but on the flip side, at the limit a little power could deliver a lot of bits.