Future Future Hardware: Bio-computers
We all know why the brain is so powerful. Neurons connect to many other neurons in a 3d space. Each neuron makes many connections with other neurons. In this way a brain could be compared to a computer system that when all linked up, can process so much information at a time... in parallel. Tbhat's what makes a brain so powerful. Each neuron is not only a mini processor of information and sences but also a storer of information.
I believe in the future we will be using some form of biological computer. With the advances in DNA research and cloning it will be possible to genetically alter certain forms of bacteria to be more prone to linking to each other and exchanging information with each other much like neurons in our brains do. The method of linking up can be determined in the DNA. They can be programmed to send out certain signals when other signals are recieved by them. They would need to be fed so living in some sort of neutral fluid would be necessary and when one is close to dying, since they are asexual , it can begin to make it's offspring with the correct function of the original for it's replacement. There would need to be some kind of electronic interface with outside peripherals and display devices. But upgrading the hardware would consist of adding more biomatter and to expand it's function you would simply install the proper software to tell it how to emulate a certain function. It would be that adaptable.
Of course something like this is more than a few years away. But 10 years ago we would have laughed at a concept like this. With all the recent developments it doesn't seem as wierd and in 10 years, there may be more progress made in that field. I say this is a technolgy that is maybe 50-70 years off for a full fledged bio computer.
I believe in the future we will be using some form of biological computer. With the advances in DNA research and cloning it will be possible to genetically alter certain forms of bacteria to be more prone to linking to each other and exchanging information with each other much like neurons in our brains do. The method of linking up can be determined in the DNA. They can be programmed to send out certain signals when other signals are recieved by them. They would need to be fed so living in some sort of neutral fluid would be necessary and when one is close to dying, since they are asexual , it can begin to make it's offspring with the correct function of the original for it's replacement. There would need to be some kind of electronic interface with outside peripherals and display devices. But upgrading the hardware would consist of adding more biomatter and to expand it's function you would simply install the proper software to tell it how to emulate a certain function. It would be that adaptable.
Of course something like this is more than a few years away. But 10 years ago we would have laughed at a concept like this. With all the recent developments it doesn't seem as wierd and in 10 years, there may be more progress made in that field. I say this is a technolgy that is maybe 50-70 years off for a full fledged bio computer.
Comments
This Isreali (is that how you spell it?) team of scientists developed tiny biocomputers, that when coupled toghether to fill the space of a test tube, operate at the speed of a couple of Ghz.
Trust me, you'll like it.
Ray Kurzweil's ideas and thoughts are really inspiring, scary, and most importantly thought provoking. There are questions asked in the book that HAVE to be addressed today.
One section of the book speaks about DNA computers, and how they're working now, but only solving simple problems. He talks briefly about combining the huge storage and redundancy safegaurds of the DNA based computatioanl device, with quantum compution (another advanced technology that's solving simple addition problems today).
The book also covers our current understanding of how our brain works, and how we're going to surpase it in the next 10 years (we could do it today if we had the GRID up and running).
The human DNA strand as we understand it today is mostly useless data, and the part that builds protiens and other complex molocules that build our entire body accounts to about 23 megabytes of digital information.
Sounds too simple right? Anyone know of the travelling salesman problem? take x number of cities and try to visit each one once while keeping travel distance between them at the absolute minimum, and never visit the same city more than once. to do this problem with 1000 cities we would need a computer the size of the universe (ever atom being a transistor), and it would take longer than the life of the universe to compute. But that's just with our current transistor based computational devices. Using a 1000 qubit quantum computer this would take no time at all, and getting the answer would take a few billionths of a second.
Just read the book. You'll start to look around you and SEE these things happening, today. It's a scary thought that the human mind is doomed, but then again, evolution solves problems faster than the universe does, we've evolved computers faster than evolution evolved us. We've beat evolution with technology by a factor of millions, and technology WILL to beat us the same way.
Here's a link to a teaser from the book, actual text:
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/k/kurzweil-machines.html"; target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/k/kurzweil-machines.html</a>;
[ 03-14-2002: Message edited by: JasonPP ]</p>
Something about that bits could be 1, 0 or both at the same time. They sounded insanly fast.
Anyone know anything more about quantum computing, and if it will come before or after bio computing.
Ben
Here are some more excerpts from the book (chapter six will give you the Quantum computer answers you're looking for, but remmember this was published in 1998, and it's all VERY old news, chapter one will explain that):
<a href="http://www.penguinputnam.com/static/packages/us/kurzweil/excerpts/exmain.htm"; target="_blank">http://www.penguinputnam.com/static/packages/us/kurzweil/excerpts/exmain.htm</a>;
Quantum computers are really well suited for linear problems like cracking encryption, but not very suitable for things like pattern recognition, that's where a DNA computer would be better. Read the above link for more info.
Sincve this book IBM announced a 7 qubit quantum computer .. wow.. here's the PR release :
<a href="http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/bios.nsf/pages/quantum.html"; target="_blank">http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/bios.nsf/pages/quantum.html</a>;
at 40 qubits, that's supercomputer class, 60 qubits and that's a million trillion simultaneous calculations. (that's out of the book... )
<strong>Quantum computers are really well suited for linear problems like cracking encryption, but not very suitable for things like pattern recognition, that's where a DNA computer would be better. Read the above link for more info.</strong><hr></blockquote>
So then which computer is our future? Will computers that a user uses in 10 years be made from bio, quantum, or same as today?
I know that no one here knows the answer, but i am a bit confused by JasonPP's comment. Does the mac I use today work more linear or more like "pattern recognition"? I would guess more linear, because you give it a command, and it goes through and does that, right?
Thanks,
Ben
Imagine: My computer has the flu...
that would suck...
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© FERRO 2001-2002
<a href="http://slashdot.org/articles/02/03/14/2051228.shtml?tid=172"; target="_blank">ouch!</a>
MSKR
Not Apple users... We'll remain in the real world and not some Sci Fi fantasy shiza... I'm not up for this 12 monkeys matrix crap - it just won't happen...
Until we can start reasoning on a level way beyond that achieved so far, the benefit of biological computers is incredibly limited. We have to understand our own thought processes before the technology can achieve it's potential.
Quantum computing is just brute force. Using multiple states and massively parallel computations. Our current understanding of computers makes this more practical to develop, and it's much more suited to the vast majority of tasks we currently use computers for - crunching numbers.
the future is scary. i'm gonna hide.
-george dietrich
Ben
<hr></blockquote>
<a href="http://www.almaden.ibm.com/st/projects/quantum/intro/"; target="_blank">http://www.almaden.ibm.com/st/projects/quantum/intro/</a>;
<a href="http://www.ibm.com/news/2000/08/15.phtml"; target="_blank">http://www.ibm.com/news/2000/08/15.phtml</a>;
IBM's Almaden group are god-like. IBM is about 10 years ahead of real-time. Then again, with their R&D budget, I could buy several small Latin-American countries each year...
And here's one on Quantum Teleportation
<a href="http://www.research.ibm.com/quantuminfo/teleportation/"; target="_blank">http://www.research.ibm.com/quantuminfo/teleportation/</a>;
The gist of QC is you have several atoms bound together (molecule) and you use NMR fields to align them all. The spin of the electron, depending on rotation/alignment, represent a 1 or 0.
But each one of those atoms can be a 1 and 0 at the same time. This is called 'superposition of states.' In fact, they ARE a 1 and zero at the same time, until you measure the spin. Then, and only then, does the spin become absolute.
Besides this, QC uses another quantum property called entanglement.
When properly aligned, and a calculation is given via radio frequencies, if one atom is, say, a 1, the other atom's values, because they are bound together in a molecule,are known. So if you have a 1 and 0, by switching the 1 to a 0, the 0 is now known to be a 1.
lame diagram:
before after
00 11
01 10
10 01
11 11
etc but think of a giant, 3 dimensional processor made from, say, 128 qubits.
The end result of the freakish quantum physics properties is a computer than can perform certain calculations, ones that would take all earth's computers more than the life of the universe to calculate, in a single step. As already metioned, they are non-linear, meaning instead of adding a trillion numbers one at a time, it would add them all together at the same time.
Cryptography, which uses 4096+-bit prime numbers, will be the first casualty of QC.They are also adept at sorting and searching.
Weird stuff, really fascinating.
[ 03-20-2002: Message edited by: stimuli ]</p>
I don't think you understand.
Bio computers are not computers specialized towards biological problem solving, or synthetic brains that breath smog and eat McDonalds crap. They are machines built using organic molecular structures like those found in DNA.
Combinig the immense redundancy of a DNA based computer with the near infinite parallelism of quantum computng would be amazing.
Imagine if each cell in your body had more computational power than all the human brains in the world combined. That's getting close to the possibilities.