4 replies to this topic

[mentatpsi]

Are you familiar with the movie eXistenZ? Though it was primarily a movie designed as a thought experiment to the implications of VR, it offered one very interesting possibility - advanced biological computers. Neurons already reorganize on their own during early development and even in adulthood. What's stopping us from utilizing this technique in hardware? The notion is similar to programming all the GUI components in Java when IDEs (e.g NetBean) already offer visual GUI component creation. We seek chips which may alter themselves, yet biology is already there.

I'm not really sure how it would be implemented (though i can think of a couple methods), but I cannot imagine there isn't a way to utilize reconstructive properties of biological matter, having "logic gates" that interpret the interplay of electrical currents which we create.

We're already capable of using electrodes to analyze and transmit data to and from the brain. I've also heard that we have software that model the brain to such accuracies that people base their research almost entirely off of the firings simulated by it.

Here's an article which might spur the imagination:

Algae and Light Help Injured Mice Walk Again.

Perhaps I'm a dreamer, but what we may accomplish is something any dreamer cannot help but gaze at in wonder.

Edited by mentatpsi, 09 January 2010 - 10:51 PM.

[mentatpsi]

Introducing concepts like genetic engineering in order to create a more "predictable" response. Data processing components already exist as do their pathways & algorithms. We've a library of modules and built-in algorithms, yet we create so many for AI and robotics. It's sounds immensely complex, but I see the innovations & discoveries of science, and I'm left to wonder...

[mentatpsi]

DNA Computers
Computer vs bacteria

[valkyrie_ice]

DNA Computers
Computer vs bacteria

http://nextbigfuture...works-from.html

Alpha Galilieo reports - University of Southampton researchers, Dr de Planque, a biochemist, and Dr Zauner, a computer scientist, will adapt brain processes to a 'wet' information processing scenario by setting up chemicals in a tube which behave like the transistors in a computer chip

The project will run for three years and involves three complementary objectives.

1. Engineer lipid-coated water droplets, inspired by biological cells, containing an excitable chemical medium and then to connect the droplets into networks in which they can communicate through chemical signals.

2. Design information-processing architectures based on the droplets and to demonstrate purposeful information processing in droplet architectures.

3. Establish and explore the potential and limitations of droplet architectures.

Our system will copy some key features of neuronal pathways in the brain and will be capable of excitation, self-repair and self-assembly

[SiliconAnimation]

DNA Computers
Computer vs bacteria

I'm glad to see someone gave credit to our bio substructure for a change.

"In terms of speed and size, however, DNA computers surpass conventional computers. While scientists say silicon chips cannot be scaled down much further, the DNA molecule found in the nucleus of all cells can hold more information in a cubic centimeter than a trillion music CDs. A spoonful of Shapiro's "computer soup" contains 15,000 trillion computers. And its energy-efficiency is more than a million times that of a PC. "

This is an understatement, most likely. There is more to DNA than DNA. A couple years back they've discovered "hairs" sprouting from the DNA strand itself which are speculated to carry an even larger quantity of data than the strand itself.

Edited by SiliconAnimation, 14 January 2010 - 05:45 AM.