3.7 KiB
[FF][HF] Harry and Hermione Starring in: The Digital Revolution - Chapter 12
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Author: u/xamueljones My arch-enemy is entropy*
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URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11922890/12/Harry-and-Hermione-Starring-in-The-Digital-Revolution
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Score: 17
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Created: 2018-05-20T15:30:37
Post:
Comments:
u/farsan13 [+14] (2 hours later)
Well, after all, Harry is a Parseltongue. Of course he can talk to adders.
u/xamueljones [+5] My arch-enemy is entropy (3 hours later)
Take it, take my upvote for that god-awful pun.
u/xamueljones [+3] My arch-enemy is entropy (3 minutes later)
For anyone who may have read the previous chapters, this is the chapter where the computational/electronic concepts are taking a more central role. Yay!
u/ben_oni [+3] (12 hours later)
Also, Hermione is terrible at this. The idea of disabling runes by filling them simplifies everything. And look, global reset. What she should really do, though, is design an FPRA: Field Programmable Runic Array. I bet it would be a lot simpler than the electronic version.
u/CopperZirconium [+1] (14 hours later)
And faster too! (Maybe.) Because the runes don't have to be connected by wires, the longest step of the verilog programming process, the part where the builder computes the module layout, can be skipped. Of course that assumes magical IDE software.
u/ben_oni [+2] (14 hours later)
But it doesn't need to be magical! I imagine some system where data can be written by a muggle computer, like printing out dots on paper. And then a magical interface reads the paper in order to program the device. Hopefully a higher density storage medium will be possible.
So... a magical computer isn't particularly useful. Automating computations is a solved problem. That's not the goal here. What they're after is Self-Spelling Wands. Maybe also enchantments that can change their configuration and function in real time. The end-game here is Ghostwheel.
Also, Verilog? I guess VHDL sucks pretty bad, too. Can't we get a modern hardware description language already? Do we really have to rely on third-party pre-compilers if we want to use a high level HDL?
u/CopperZirconium [+2] (14 hours later)
Yessssss! Magic computers! Although it looks like magic is just standing in for electricity here. I hope magic computers can have unique advantages to electrical computers beyond just able to operate in Hogwarts. I doubt magic switches can get as small as modern transistors, but not needing to be physically wired together could mean more layers of magic transistors are possible. If magic traveled faster then light, or was more instantaneous than flowing electrons then you could break the gigahertz clock-speed limit. If magic signals could hold a superposition, then Hermione and Harry could easily surpass our current quantum computers. That would be quite magical!
u/crivtox [+2] Closed Time Loop Enthusiast (2 days later)
Time turners are a thing so maybe they could make closed time loop computers whith them and solve instantaneously all problems in PSPACE.
u/Evan_Th [+1] Sunshine Regiment (30 minutes later)
Good to hear - I dropped out several chapters back for want of that!
u/crivtox [+1] Closed Time Loop Enthusiast (2 days later)
I somehow have the suspicion that Dumbledore is secretly Voldemort in this fic , and I'm not sure why. That or at least all the war was somehow part of his plan.