Physics Colloquium

Wesley C. Campbell, UCLA Physics and Astronomy

Title: Atomic Intelligence is the original AI


How much can an atom possibly know? To be more precise (and scientific), how much information can an atom hold?  The theoretical answer is certainly interesting, but the theme that will be explored is the fact that the answer is: "far more than 1 bit."  Electrons in atoms have access to a huge state space, so if we're trying to increase the information-handling capacity of processors (both classical and quantum), it may not make sense to use only a tiny corner of that space.  Some ideas for developing atomic real estate will be presented in the hope that it encourages fruitful discussion about novel uses for this untapped resource.