Thermodynamic Computing: An Intellectual and Technological Frontier

Abstract

Concepts from thermodynamics are ubiquitous in computing systems today—e.g., in power supplies and cooling systems, in signal transport losses, in device fabrication, in state changes, and in the methods of machine learning. Here we propose that thermodynamics should be the central, unifying concept in future computing systems. In particular, we suppose that future computing technologies will thermodynamically evolve in response to electrical and information potential in their environment and, therefore, address the central challenges of energy efficiency and self-organization in technological systems. In this article, we summarize the motivation for a new computing paradigm grounded in thermodynamics and articulate a vision for such future systems.

Keywords

• thermodynamics
• computation
• thermodynamic computing
• artificial intelligence
• self-organization
• evolution