From digital hype to analogue reality: Universal simulation beyond the quantum and exascale eras

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jocs.2020.101093
• Publication Date: 2020-03-06T07:25:12Z
• Authors: Peter V. Coveney; Roger R. Highfield
• Keywords: Artificial intelligence; 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences; Digital computing; Exascale computing; Machine learning; Analogue computing; Computer simulation; Quantum computing; Article

Many believe that the future of innovation lies in simulation. However, as computers are becoming ever more powerful, so does the hyperbole used to discuss their potential in modelling across a vast range of domains, from subatomic physics to chemistry, climate science, epidemiology, economics and cosmology. As we are about to enter the era of quantum and exascale computing, machine learning and artificial intelligence have entered the field in a significant way. In this article we give a brief history of simulation, discuss how machine learning can be more powerful if underpinned by deeper mechanistic understanding, outline the potential of exascale and quantum computing, highlight the limits of digital computing - classical and quantum - and distinguish rhetoric from reality in assessing the future of modelling and simulation, when we believe analogue computing will play an increasingly important role.