Inertia = resource lag

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20060428

I am listening to a Science Friday podcast about quantum computing. The guest says that when particles collide they flip bits. Molecular vibration is a storm of calculations. And entropy is a spreading out of calculatory pressure.

That means that matter can be thought of as a dense cloud of calculation objects.

In moving something through space, you are only moving the outer layer of particles (calc. obj.). It is then those particles that push on their neighbors, who push on their neighbors, etc. Think of a 50-gallon trashbag filled with gelatin floating in space. If you pushed ever-so-gently, you could cause the bag of gelatin to drift slowly away. But if you pushed very quickly, your hand would drive the plastic into the mass of gelatin leaving a deep dent, and not causing as much motion as you expected. The inertia of the whole mass was greater than its cohesion.

To relate to the quantum computing thing... by pushing on one side, you cause calculations to be carried out through the entire cloud. So, does this mean that inertia is an expression of the processing power consumed by the entire cloud as it responds to a change in velocity?

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