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Future Computers Will Be Radically Different (Analog Computing)

92 videos recommended on HN
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7 HN users recommended this explainer5 months2022–2025 score 5.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Treated as the accessible reference on analog computing for neural nets, especially the Mythic AI segment.

Veritasium explains why analog computing may suit AI workloads, covering old analog computers, The Analog Thing and Mythic's analog chips that use flash memory for neural network inference. It argues digital hardware is hitting limits.

“Veritasium explains it really well in general here (and demos the device)” (HN, 2024)

1 strong recommendations · 6 recommendations · 12 citations · 1 critical · Explainers · partly dated

20 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@iKlsR Mar 2022 Strongly recommends
on HN thread Ask HN: What concepts have you never truly understood?
Agreed. I've never really gotten into neural networks, most of the times I start but get distracted or bored/lost and suddenly enough a Vertiasium video pops up and about everything just slots into place, stuff you've glossed over or heard before just make sense. [this video] . Start at minute 4:00.
Made neural networks click when other resources failed
@cultofmetatron Mar 2022 Recommends
on HN thread Ask HN: What is your take on carbon emissions of Machine Learning
basicly, we can do things like matrix operations and differntial equations using specialized hardware that performs computation over analog signals rather than buidlign discrete systems. the end result is that we dont' need anywhere near the level of compute to do the job as its done using an analog of the physical process. here's two youtube videos that explain is much better than I could. [link] [this video] suffice to say, your average house fly exhibits behavior that absolutely dominates our best drones and with a fraction of the circuitry.
Explains analog hardware for matrix operations better than commenter could
@JieJie Mar 2023 Recommends
on HN thread Richard Stallman's thoughts on ChatGPT, AI and their impact on humanity
I found this Veritasium video interesting, about a company that is paring down models so they fit on analog chips, so the chips can be used in self-contained devices. It also appears that quantum computers may be even better for matrix math that transformers rely on. If all these hardware advances pan out... [this video] [link]
Shows shrinking models to fit analog chips for self-contained devices
@sholladay Aug 2024 Recommends
on HN thread What Is Analog Computing?
Veritasium has a good video about analog computers. It covers how they work, what they are used for, pros and cons compared to digital, what they look like today, a bit of the history and their possible future. [this video]
Covers how analog works, uses, pros and cons, history, future

Citations, criticism and jokes

@yazaddaruvala Mar 2022 Cites it
on HN thread U.S. eliminates human controls requirement for fully automated vehicles
Read more
[link] This is a rather intuitive mathematical proof that neural nets can emulate all functions in many dimensions. Knowing integrals (Calc 102) would help. With this information it’s either that self-driving is eventually possible or human brains are not mathematically representable (i.e. something akin to a soul). Meanwhile, the data collection/storage is getting better (all Teslas are continually testing FSD and reporting failure cases, synthetic generation of “good and unique” perfectly labeled data[0] is only a year or two “old”). Sensors/cameras are improving (and have a lot more room to improve). The compute hardware is getting better and cheaper (analog computers[1], TSMC 2nm and beyond, Apple/Google/Teslas neural cores, etc). Additionally, given Waymo is already in production without humans in PHX it’s arguable that we already have “autonomous vehicles”. We now just need them to improve slightly and for Waymo or similar to test in the top 25 cities in the US. Which is mostly a matter of capital and time not technology limits. Maybe weather will be an issue for a few more years/decades - but even if Waymo only operated in Summer, I’d be happy to reduce my Lyft costs - and with enough data and maybe better sensors the neural nets will be able to handle weather too. Especially if the car just goes slow. [0] [link] [1] [this video] [2] [link]
Cited as example of improving compute hardware
@sargstuff Apr 2022 Cites it
on HN thread Λ-2D: Exploration of Drawing as Programming Language, Ideas from Lambda Calculus
Read more
Warning: Bit of a 'Hitch hikers guide to the galaxy"/conway game of life yak shave for a reply. Nice start to providing a simple way to visually interact/experiment/manipulate different multiple Neural network concepts by loading/transforming any traditional code (working or not) & reshuffling/tesselating the structual representation of the code to generate a turing tape path via color execution paths. Switching to pi calculus could provide the theory to support coroutine/coprossing/ threading" multiple interacting tape paths/color combinations/path diffs/scaled recusion to perform assembly language instructions. Raster graphics without the yak ( [link] ) Feed back between tape & "traditional code" as neural network layer(s)! Flexiable code (via tessilations) without changing the actual imported source code! So, complete svg (tape interactions) web page as code source on how to interact with web page, ( [link] ) what's displayed/played, documentation & usage manual included within code structure! Unicode permits implied piping rich kern font without all the tech fluff. Unicode fails because allows infinate multics and is there for k&r incomplete. But, this approach is way more dimensional/colorful than unicode/tech stuff. ?? can one's code unintentially provide a wordle problem & solution in one package ?? ( [link] ) ?? turing complete fourier transforms [link] toolkit concepts: Neural networks / analog stuff : [this video] perceptrons: [this video] spreadsheets (: [link] (turing sprea
One of many links in rambling toolkit list
@dinosaurdynasty Jun 2022 Cites it
on HN thread Embodiment is indispensable for AGI
Read more
Considering evolution optimized for biological fitness and not intelligence, it would be incredibly surprising if it wasn't possible to do better, especially using a vastly different architecture. You could also build an AGI to run on a digital CPU but interact with a simulation that used analog coprocessors (which is a thing these days [this video] ). You can also include quantum coprocessors (which already exist in their infancy) for various things (probably only useful for quantum simulations at this point though). Also considering recent ML work, an AGI is more likely going to run on something similar to a GPU than a CPU.
Evidence that analog coprocessors exist today
@WorkerBee28474 Nov 2022 Cites it
on HN thread Quantum winter is coming
Fire control computers, like on a navy ship, were faster than digital computers of the day. YouTube has a number of videos on them. An opamp performs multiplication faster than a digital computer (speed of light vs a few cycles). It's not super useful on its own, but it does fit the criteria. In Veritasium's video 2/2 on analog computers [0] they show some startup products near the end. [0] [this video]
Shows startup analog computing products near the end
@gopalv Mar 2023 Cites it
on HN thread The Zombie Comeback of Analog Computing
The company (Mythic AI) in the article was featured on a Veritasium video[1] about analog computing. The interesting part for analog is obviously going to be wear and repeatability, because the digital layer auto-corrects the errors until it becomes damaged and unusable clearly, while analog will slide off somewhat gracefully but you need a way to detect it happening multiple layers later. AI is somewhat tolerant of errors since, the cumulative error across a lot of biases can approach zero if the errors are random. [1] - [this video]
Featured Mythic AI, the company in the article
@depingus Jun 2023 Cites it
on HN thread An open source, educational, low-cost modern analog computer
Actually, I have a Pixel 7 with the Tensor G2. I can't find the tera operations per second on it, but Google has said that its [1] 60% more powerful than their Tensor Coral (4 TOPS at 2W of power). That puts the G2 at about 6.4 TOPS. The Mythic analog chip [2] is pumping 25 TOPS at 3W. For comparison, modern (digital) GPUs are doing 25-100 TOPS at 50W-100W...while costing >$1000. So, its a big jump. [1] [link] [2] [this video]
Source for Mythic analog chip performance figures
@code_witch_sam Jun 2023 Cites it
on HN thread Falcon 40B LLM (which beats Llama) now Apache 2.0
analog chips like what MythicAI is developing seem like the next obvious leap forward for deploying inferences broadly. ASIC/FPGA wouldn't be much different than a GPU. ASIC seems like a brittle solution [this video]
Source for Mythic analog inference approach
@btilly Jun 2025 Cites it
on HN thread A New Kind of Computer (April 2025)
Read more
This paradigm for computing was already covered three years ago by Veratasium in [this video] . Maybe not the specific photonic system that they are describing. Which I'm sure has some significant improvements over what existed then. But the idea of using analog approximations of existing neural net AI models, to allow us to run AI models far more cheaply, with far less energy. Whether or not this system is the one that wins out, I'm very sure that AI run on an analog system will have a very important role to play in the future. It will allow technologies like guiding autonomous robots with AI models running on hardware inside of the robot.
Earlier coverage of analog approximations of neural nets
@bklaasen Mar 2022 Pushes back
on HN thread We're Building Computers Wrong [video]
[this video] Start here to hear the deplorable and utterly uninspiring uses the guy comes up with for analogue chips, then rewind to the start. The tech is great, but the (presumably most compelling) use cases this guy can come up with are automated surveillance and efficiencies in junk food production.

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