Year: 2002
Type: article
Abstract: All physical systems register and process information. The laws of physics determine the amount of information that a physical system can register (number of bits) and the number of elementary logic operations that a system can perform (number of ops). The Universe is a physical system. The amount of information that the Universe can register and the number of elementary operations that it can have performed over its history are calculated. The Universe can have performed ${10}^{120}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}\mathrm{ops}$ on ${10}^{90}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}\mathrm{bits}$ ( ${10}^{120}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}\mathrm{bits}$ including gravitational degrees of freedom).
Source: Physical Review Letters
Author: Seth Lloyd
Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1993466133