General Knowledge!

[MrMxyzptlk]

Okay, let's stick with cosmic forces, shall we?

This one is all about "Information Theory." *

Suppose that it is possible to describe the universe in terms of it all being "particles of information." In fact, suppose that everything can be reduced to the familiar ones and zeros (1, 0) "bits" - or quanta which can be 0, 1, or both - at their most basic level. Then the current state of every "bit" in the universe is its "memory," and since the universe is finite, that memory must be finite as well.

Interestingly, we can then consider the universe itself to be a type of "computing device," modifying information as time passes.

Well guess what?  Some smart dudes sat down and worked out an estimation for just how many bits that is! (Hint: This involves the Plank constant, speed of light, and the amount of time since the big bang....)

The result?: Our universe has performed about 10¹²⁰ "ops" in its entire history!


Now for The Question: Considering "every degree of freedom of every particle in the universe" how many "bits" could our universe now hold?  (Hint: It has to be a number SMALLER than the number of "ops....")  An answer within +/- two powers of ten is acceptable.

* So if this all made your head implode, JUST GUESS! 

[BFM_Crimson]

42

[BFM_Kiwi]

I'm not exactly sure how they define "bits" or "ops", but I'd guess that it takes more to describe the universe at an instant in time than to describe the history, since it seems like the universe is big and has a lot of stuff in it, compared to it age.  So I'd say it's 10⁹⁰.  (more than half of 10¹²⁰ by quite a bit)

[BFM_Effect]

guessing.
3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510
?

[Lucky]

10^100

[BFM_Xtr3me]

10¹¹⁵

[jim360]

Well guess what?  Some smart dudes sat down and worked out an estimation for just how many bits that is! (Hint: This involves the Plank constant, speed of light, and the amount of time since the big bang...)

Surely at least one other fundamental constant, since dimensionally that wouldn't produce a pure number? I'd reckon that it would be G?

EDIT: So because of that I'm going to go for the, perhaps overly, precise 8.049 x 10⁶⁰, or powers thereof.

[MrMxyzptlk]

I'm not exactly sure how they define "bits" or "ops", but I'd guess that it takes more to describe the universe at an instant in time than to describe the history, since it seems like the universe is big and has a lot of stuff in it, compared to it age.  So I'd say it's 10⁹⁰.  (more than half of 10¹²⁰ by quite a bit)

Wow. 

Kiwi hits it ON THE NOSE!  10⁹⁰! 

[ link ]

[BFM_Edison]

10^90 is a lot less than half of 10^120, by the way

[Gangus]

To much thinking for pete's sake and us dummies just throw stickie nades and get it done with...lol


G

[BFM_Kiwi]

10^90 is a lot less than half of 10^120, by the way

LOL, yeah even 10^119 is less than half!  I meant that the exponent had to be between 0-120, and I picked 90, being more towards 120.  Still don't really understand it after reading Mxy's article!

In 2011, you can buy a 1TB hard drive for about $100.  If you wanted to buy up 1TB worth of hard disks for your Apple II back in 1981, about how much would it have cost?

[BFM_JANE]

One million dollars!

[Lucky]

Trick question; Apple II didn't have a hard disk.

[BFM_Kiwi]

LOL.  I don't suppose it did.  I just picked a nice even date, 30 years ago.  Just assume you did want to assemble a terabyte's worth of disk, how much would it cost.  Not a million dollars.

[Lucky]

About 35 million dollars, but with inflation it's hard to really pinpoint a price.