assuming that storage space is not a bottleneck (let's just set it to "arbitrary" at the moment) then the following things quite possibly still are.
- Access speed. This one has actually been defined as "pretty darn quick" as well, so it's probably not *much* of a restriction in this case, but you still do have to pull the data *out* of storage before you can use it.
- RAM: assuming access speed is high enough, then The Boxes would actually be able to function as RAM as well, making them a double boost. If the access speed is not so fast, though, you still have to filter things through RAM in order to treat them as anything other than undifferentiated blocks of raw data.
- Processing speed: there's nothing you can do anout this one. You're short -term and long-term memory have both been upped arbitrarily, but the girls still have a limit on how fast they can flip bits. Mind you, as AIs, this speed will already be significantly higher than most computers, but it's still a limitation.
- OS-equivalents and basic algorithms: essentially, aspects of personality, and how competent the girls are at doing various tasks. The bit in the program where it says "access this bit of information and get back to me" will speed up, and overall processing will note some speed improvements with it, but the likelihood of coming up with more correct answers given the same data will be unchanged.
- Input streams: everything that goes into the box has to come through them. You have privelidged data transfer internally, but the input feeds are still the same. Also, adding truly large amounts of data in is probably really boring.
- Organization and sorting: You can download the internet if you want to, but you still have to search through the thing in order to get anything from it - and searching still has to be done with CPU cycles. You can sort it into more efficient formats if you like, but then the sorting has to be done with CPU cycles - and most of it is probably *also* really boring.
- Psychology: Having an arbitrarily large long-term-memory equivalent issn't a big deal. It doesn't matter until you think about it. If you're using it for short-term memory, though (RAM, in this case) that means that you're pretty much constantly aware of the contents of your in-box RAM partition. Assuming that there isn't a problem with distraction, it may still feel Really Strange, and, for some folks, a bit on the uncomfortable side.
- Access speed. This one has actually been defined as "pretty darn quick" as well, so it's probably not *much* of a restriction in this case, but you still do have to pull the data *out* of storage before you can use it.
- RAM: assuming access speed is high enough, then The Boxes would actually be able to function as RAM as well, making them a double boost. If the access speed is not so fast, though, you still have to filter things through RAM in order to treat them as anything other than undifferentiated blocks of raw data.
- Processing speed: there's nothing you can do anout this one. You're short -term and long-term memory have both been upped arbitrarily, but the girls still have a limit on how fast they can flip bits. Mind you, as AIs, this speed will already be significantly higher than most computers, but it's still a limitation.
- OS-equivalents and basic algorithms: essentially, aspects of personality, and how competent the girls are at doing various tasks. The bit in the program where it says "access this bit of information and get back to me" will speed up, and overall processing will note some speed improvements with it, but the likelihood of coming up with more correct answers given the same data will be unchanged.
- Input streams: everything that goes into the box has to come through them. You have privelidged data transfer internally, but the input feeds are still the same. Also, adding truly large amounts of data in is probably really boring.
- Organization and sorting: You can download the internet if you want to, but you still have to search through the thing in order to get anything from it - and searching still has to be done with CPU cycles. You can sort it into more efficient formats if you like, but then the sorting has to be done with CPU cycles - and most of it is probably *also* really boring.
- Psychology: Having an arbitrarily large long-term-memory equivalent issn't a big deal. It doesn't matter until you think about it. If you're using it for short-term memory, though (RAM, in this case) that means that you're pretty much constantly aware of the contents of your in-box RAM partition. Assuming that there isn't a problem with distraction, it may still feel Really Strange, and, for some folks, a bit on the uncomfortable side.