



00957nas a2200109   4500008004100000245005800041210005700099260001500156520062000171100001200791856004400803       2002                        eng d00aMaxwell's demon and the thermodynamics of computation0 aMaxwells demon and the thermodynamics of computation  c2002/03/053 a  It is generally accepted, following Landauer and Bennett, that the process of
measurement involves no minimum entropy cost, but the erasure of information in
resetting the memory register of a computer to zero requires dissipating heat
into the environment. This thesis has been challenged recently in a two-part
article by Earman and Norton. I review some relevant observations in the
thermodynamics of computation and argue that Earman and Norton are mistaken:
there is in principle no entropy cost to the acquisition of information, but
the destruction of information does involve an irreducible entropy cost.
1 aBub, J.  uhttp://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0203017v1