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Freshbite wrote:

Jacktheawesome wrote:My question would be would it matter if you had observed the output before sending the input, or not? Could you retroactively affect the output by changing your mind on what the input is at the last minute, or would the output always reflect your final decision from the beginning, either way?

Yeah that's what I was wondering about.

One thing that I've been thinking about is interesting, but cannot possibly be proven. If we were to change our mind about the decision of what key to press, could the time rewrite itself and connect us into an altered 'timeline' in which we believe that the new key is what we wanted to press in the first place?

Output: "You will press the 'F' key."
Person 1: "Fuck that, I'm going to press the 'B' key instead."
Person 2: "Yep, 'B' key, you're totally bending time right now."

[TIME WARP]

Person 1: "Alright, the button is pressed, what did the output say again?"
Output: "You will press the 'B' key."
Person 2: "You did press the 'B' key!"
Person 1: "Just like the output said, that's amazing!"

Tricky to explain. Even harder to actually think logically about.

This is exactly what would make quantum computing possible.

A quantum computer could see what results it has already analyzed in a earlier scenario and further refine said data using that same moment in time.

A single bit quantum computer would be faster than any other computer on the face of the earth.


EDIT: HOLY SHIT. I think this means that calculating the limits to problems that are infinitely long would be probable >_>

We could find EXACT solutions for all differential problems expressible with taylor series.

... My mind just got blown.

If no one here is quite grasping how fucking awesome this would be ...

A computer game can be as complex as you want to make it and it would only be limited in terms of how fast your monitor can refresh.

God damn.

EDIT 2!?!?!?: WE COULD MODEL A REAL TIME WORKING MODEL OF SOMEONES BRAIN! THIS MEANS AI IS POSSIBLE! >_>

Freshbite wrote:THE ETERNAL QUESTION SHALL BE ANSWERED.

It already has.
42

But what is the question?

Didn't it turn out to actually be 6*7 in one of the later books?

Well, barring quantum mechanics, changing your mind has changed nothing. You were destined, in the progression of events, to think of hitting F first but then thinking that maybe B would be better and hitting that instead. There is no reality, nor a possible one in which your finger hit the F key at that moment of existence. There was only what actually happened.

No because in our contrived scenario the user was aware that the output was going to be the F key (because the output arrived before the input blah blah) but decided to fuck it all and press B anyways.

Thus the output is modified. I would imagine that it'd be like a distance constraint. You don't modify just one end.
Point A (Input) pulls towards Point B (Output) when they are too far apart (Like, smite me for this reference, becoming de-synced in Assassin's Creed) or away when they are too close (Like maybe a time paradox or something).
But Point B does the same to Point A. Otherwise, you end up with one point being stationary and one moving around a lot, rather than a natural equilibrium of both.

So you're saying you could stare at your desperately flickering output as you whimsically imagine all the different buttons to press?

Jacktheawesome wrote:But what is the question?

Wait, are you saying we have the answer before we have the question?
Is this output before input?!


Mind=Blown

(Bastard image refused to show up. I went to great lengths to do this!)

Zelron wrote:

Jacktheawesome wrote:But what is the question?

Wait, are you saying we have the answer before we have the question?
Is this output before input?!


Mind=Blown

Hahaha. I was actually thinking that very thing as I typed it. Douglas Adams was a pretty smart dude.
Oh, and your photo does not function.

Could we, in a narrative sense, use a Pinkie Pie reference to kill all this quantum mechanics shit?

NO! We shall change topic forcefully and with out mercy, with THIS!

Your move internet...

No! No! But...but we were having an actual thought provoking discussion! We...but-

Viktor? Brian?

Fuck you guys. I'm going to bed.

The thing is, the output proceeds the input.

So, no matter what, the output will match the input given.

It may say "This button says B" and you have all the intent to press A. But your finger will slip and you will press B.

Thats if there was no logical operations made to your decision.

Add logical operations and BAM! you have a quantum computer.