Caffeinated Coder

If you think that software developers represent the pinnacle of alpha geekdom, then try taking this simple quiz…

1. Have you ever been asked to calculate the probability that your professor would wake up on Mars the next day? (yes, it can be done)
2. Is the Math that you work with too complicated to be placed on computers?
3. Did you build an atom smasher in your garage when you were in High School?
4. Do you spend most of the day staring out the window and playing with equations in your head?

Feeling intellectually inadequate? If so, perhaps you should have channeled your evil geek powers into becoming a theoretical physicists instead.

I just finished listening to a slightly off-topic, but most excellent hanselminutes podcast that featured an interview with noted theoretical physicist and futurist Michio Kaku. He talked about his new book The Physics of the Impossible, which I just ordered for myself on Amazon.

In the book, Dr. Kaku examines a variety of science-fictiony topics, like invisibility, teleportation, time travel, laser guns, and star travel and categorizes each according to how possible they are based on the known laws of physics and the current state of human technology. He even offers predictions on when we are likely to achieve each of the things that we thought were impossible at one point or another.

For example, I was surprised to learn that scientists have already teleported photons and cesium atoms under the Danube River and expect to be able to teleport the first organic molecules within the next 20 years. I guess the Star Trek vision of commuting isn’t as far-fetched as I thought, although Dr. Kaku points out that you would be destroyed in the process before rematerializing someplace else. A small price to pay to avoid rush hour traffic if you ask me…

There was also some interesting discussion that is of more immediate concern to software developers regarding the coming Post Silicon Age. For those of you who haven’t heard rumblings of the impending end of Moore’s Law in the next decade, it is predicted that by 2020 the transistors will reach the size limitations (about 5 atoms across) at which silicon is simply not stable at the atomic level. Not only will chips generate so much heat that they’ll melt, but they also begin to suffer from electron leakage which causes random short circuits.

So, it appears that in the near future advances in computer hardware will rely less on on electrical engineers and more on physicists and breakthroughs in quantum computers.

On the bright side, that means that it won’t be long before you’ll be able to stop blaming those difficult to troubleshoot software glitches on mundane things like firewalls and network blips and start pulling out some truly impressive excuses. I, for one, can’t wait to tell my users…”Sorry those totals are off, we must be having problems maintaining the direction of the spin on some of those electrons” again.

Until then, you’ll have to settle for the podcast interview (or transcripts if you don’t have much of a commute) and/or book.

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