# How to train your demon to do fast information erasure without heat production

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.10607 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.10607/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 17 May 2023.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Optimal Computation from Fluctuation Responses](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.03900/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Time-dependent protocols that perform irreversible logical operations, such as memory erasure, cost work and produce heat, placing bounds on the efficiency of computers. Here we use a prototypical computer model of a physical memory to show that it is possible to learn feedback-control protocols to do fast memory erasure without input of work or production of heat. These protocols, which are enacted by a neural-network ``demon'', do not violate the second law of thermodynamics because the demon generates more heat than the memory absorbs. The result is a form of nonlocal heat exchange in which one computation is rendered energetically favorable while a compensating one produces heat elsewhere, a tactic that could be used to rationally design the flow of energy within a computer.