Fantastic first post, Nick. I would like to chime in on the quantum computing tidbit (as that’s where my passion and expertise lies): regarding economies of scale, while it’s true that quantum computing power scales exponentially with qubit count, the real challenge lies in maintaining coherence and reducing error rates as systems grow. So, even if vast resources flow toward building large quantum systems, diminishing returns might set in unless breakthroughs in error correction and fault tolerance keep pace. It’s not just size that matter - it’s scalability in practice, not just theory ;)
Good point about the practical scaling challenges! Those engineering constraints could be another barrier to compute centralization. I have also been thinking that even if we could somehow solve those scaling issues and achieve increasing returns to scale in computing power, there's an interesting question about whether that translates to proportional increases in value. Like display resolution - beyond ~2,200 pixels per inch (the limit of human eye resolution at the closest possible viewing distance), adding more pixels provides ~zero additional value. We might similarly find that past certain thresholds of computing power, additional compute doesn't meaningfully contribute to solving problems future civilizations actually care about.
Fantastic first post, Nick. I would like to chime in on the quantum computing tidbit (as that’s where my passion and expertise lies): regarding economies of scale, while it’s true that quantum computing power scales exponentially with qubit count, the real challenge lies in maintaining coherence and reducing error rates as systems grow. So, even if vast resources flow toward building large quantum systems, diminishing returns might set in unless breakthroughs in error correction and fault tolerance keep pace. It’s not just size that matter - it’s scalability in practice, not just theory ;)
Good point about the practical scaling challenges! Those engineering constraints could be another barrier to compute centralization. I have also been thinking that even if we could somehow solve those scaling issues and achieve increasing returns to scale in computing power, there's an interesting question about whether that translates to proportional increases in value. Like display resolution - beyond ~2,200 pixels per inch (the limit of human eye resolution at the closest possible viewing distance), adding more pixels provides ~zero additional value. We might similarly find that past certain thresholds of computing power, additional compute doesn't meaningfully contribute to solving problems future civilizations actually care about.