Hogwarts: From Selling White Peppers to Becoming a God

Chapter 402 Heading to the Future

A memristor, also known as a memory resistor, is a circuit device that can represent the relationship between magnetic flux and electric charge.

Unlike ordinary resistors, the resistance of a memristor is determined by the charge flowing through it. In other words, its resistance is changed by the current that flowed through it last time. By measuring the resistance of a memristor, the amount of charge flowing through it can be known, thus giving it the function of remembering charge.

Because its properties are very similar to the plasticity of neuronal synapses, it is one of the most effective ways to simulate artificial neural networks.

The magical silicon carbide material discovered by Dunzel Evans can be seen as a kind of magical memristor. It is not a magical semiconductor, so it cannot be used to make ordinary classic computer chips, but it is extremely suitable as a magical neural network chip.

Neural network chips, being naturally suited for machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms, are actually more suitable for use in the Internet of Things than ordinary classic chips, as they are better able to endow "things" with "intelligence".

This thing is practically tailor-made for Murphy's "magic Internet of Things" project.

At this point, memristors were still a theoretical concept, twelve years away from 2008 when the world's first memristor device was manufactured by Hewlett-Packard.

At that time, even electronic memristors had not yet appeared in the world, and Dunzel Evans did not have Murphy's vision for the future. He was unaware of the future potential of artificial intelligence and neural networks, and therefore did not think in that direction at all.

Murphy didn't explain much to him, but immediately assembled a project team that brought together experts in various artificial neural networks and extracted a large amount of information from his own memory about future research on memristors and artificial neural networks.

Because this area was somewhat related to his major, he paid more attention to it at the time, so the information was much more detailed. Basically, this information alone was enough to save them more than 20 years of research, bringing them close to the research progress before Murphy's time travel.

"Currently, various applications of magic technology are flourishing, and it has already brought tremendous changes to the world. I believe everyone has already experienced this through various projects such as the moon landing."

At the project team's inaugural meeting, Murphy addressed everyone.

"However, if we want to apply magic technology more widely to various fields and let it inherit the scientific and technological research results of the past hundreds of years, we still have two important problems to solve."

"Firstly, there's the issue of magical energy. Several cutting-edge projects, such as the Artificial Magic Network Project, are aimed at solving this problem."

"The second equally important one is magic chip technology. The technological progress in the modern world can basically be seen as the progress of precision technology. The upper limit of our processing and production capabilities depends on the precision processing capabilities. If we want magic technology to have the same processing precision, we must manufacture chips that can operate using magic as an energy source."

"Today's project team is dedicated to researching artificial neural network chips based on magic memristors. I have already distributed advanced research materials on memristors and artificial neural networks to everyone. You need to verify and familiarize yourselves with these materials first, and then, based on that, go a step further and develop magic chips that are commercially viable."

"Originally, we should have proceeded slowly with such profound and cutting-edge research, but unfortunately, we don't have much time left."

"The gods are invading our world."

"And the weapon that can defeat them may be in your hands."

"To accelerate the research process, from now on, each laboratory can apply to use a time accelerator to speed up time within itself or a specific area," Murphy said. "Of course, to avoid indirectly shortening everyone's lifespan in this way, we will provide life-extending magic free of charge."

"We have two ways to extend lifespan: one is to become a vampire, and the other is to combine anti-aging drugs and elixirs of immortality. Both methods can extend your lifespan by more than a thousand years."

"However, no matter what method you use, the time you have devoted to the research is real, and the tedious research process, the setbacks and hardships you have suffered in the process will not be reduced in the slightest. The aging and trauma that the years have inflicted on your hearts will be as real as the time itself has been to you."

"We are almost powerless to do anything about it."

"Therefore, this is a research method that leads to the future. While paying the highest respect to the courageous choices you may make, I personally hope that you will carefully, seriously, and responsibly consider whether you want to use such methods."

However, no sooner had Murphy finished speaking than a researcher in the audience raised his hand, asking, "How is the compensation calculated?"

"Naturally, it will be measured by your actual working hours," Murphy said.

"What else is there to say? I request to use the time acceleration feature!" the researcher said. "Since I've embarked on this path, I'm mentally prepared for the so-called tedium, boredom, setbacks, and torment. Being able to publish papers and produce results a hundred times faster with only a small mental cost—if my peers knew, they'd be green with envy!"

"I heard the time accelerator has a maximum multiplication rate of 100x? Something that might take others a year to achieve, I can accomplish in just three days! With such a great opportunity, why hesitate?!"

"I've heard that becoming a vampire causes insomnia, but it keeps you looking young. Is that true?" a female researcher asked, raising her hand. "I mean, I want to know if it will make me ugly?"

"That's not entirely accurate, but some experimental results do show that vampires only show signs of aging towards the end of their lifespan. As for the sleep issue, our vampire treatment potion will be ready soon, and it should resolve those negative effects quickly."

"Then I have no further questions. I will also apply for time acceleration."

"Could the time acceleration rate be even higher?" one researcher asked.

"It's possible that it will continue to improve in the future," Murphy replied, "but even if there are time accelerators with higher multipliers, I don't recommend using them, as there are too many uncertainties."

"How exactly does the method of accelerating regional time work? Is there any danger?" someone else asked.

"We will cover the entire research lab or institute with magical metal wires and then use a time accelerator on it. To ensure the various needs of everyone inside are met, it will be equipped with various facilities and supplies, while maintaining constant communication with the outside world. The acceleration can be stopped at any time. We have fully considered all possibilities, and this acceleration method is safe."

"Of course, the larger the area being accelerated, the more materials involved, and the higher the acceleration rate, the greater the magical energy consumed. Therefore, at present, we can only accelerate a facility of about 30,000 cubic meters by a factor of 100."

"Then I propose that the Magic Chip Project team collectively accelerate," said Dunzel Evans. "This way, we can keep track of each other's research progress. After all, this is already cutting-edge research, so whether or not we communicate with the outside world is basically unimportant."

(End of this chapter)