Computing With Molecules

ruppel writes: "Scientific American has an interesting article on molecular computing. The article is quite extensive, covering several technological issues and visions for the future. It also lists references for further reading and some interesting links. " The article is a great technical overview of what's actually going in nano/molecular/x computing.

Comments

Re:And once more, the environment gets it

[chialea]

actually, you might want to take a look at some of the more popular works of Merkle and Drexler, describing (very accurately) both the advantages and disadvantages of nanotechnology. the environmental consequences are actually one of the best things, in my opinion.

self-replication and self-assembly mean factories turn into tanks, without spewing toxic chemicals all over the place. we would probably almost entirely stop using roads for shipping (and transportation in cities) in favor of extremely fast underground subways. we can smear the roads with an extremely tough substance which essentially acts as a solar panel that you can drive on and lasts for quite a long time. it's a very good way to get power -- you take otherwise useless radiating heat from the roads outside, and you release it out your roof, and on the way it's done a little work. toxic waste? that's one of the easiest of all to take care of. think of the bacteria that scientists are developing to "eat" oil slicks. it's more than possible to break down, molecule by molecule, entire toxic waste dumps into basically whatever you would like.

disadvantages: grey goo. if something eats up the entire earth, the environment will go, along with everything else. there are quite a lot of people worrying about this -- we anticipated it, so it's likely we can take care of the risk (through blue goo or similar)

there are other advantages: perfect recycling at a molecular level, basically an end to cancer and many other lethal and debilitating diseases, a chance to explore our galaxy... there are disadvantages as well -- but the environmental condition is not likely to be one of them.

Lea

Sure beats what I'm doing now:

[FascDot Killed My Pr]

I need to get on the bandwagon. Everyone is computing with molecules and here I am like a dolt, using pure energy.
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The most important point

[spiralx]

Although the advances were encouraging, the challenges remaining are enormous. Creating individual devices is an essential first step. But before we can build complete, useful circuits we must find a way to secure many millions, if not billions, of molecular devices of various types against some kind of immobile surface and to link them in any manner and into whatever patterns our circuit diagrams dictate. The technology is still too young to say for sure whether this monumental challenge will ever be surmounted.

They've shown that it's possible to build molecular-level electronic components like an AND gate and a memory analogue, but it'll be connected them together to form circuits that'll be the real challenge.

Think of how many transistors comprise even the most simplest of processors nowadays, and the technology it takes to fabricate them. And then think of doing the same, but with individual components and connections consisting of only a few molecules. There's going to have to be some real advances made in the ability to manipulate matter on this scale before this sort of thing becomes feasible on a large scale where economies of scale can apply.

But at least the proof of concept is there, and work will advance quickly with the threat of the end of Moore's Law approaching. And yet again, so much for all of the "end of computing" doomsayers :)

Re:Current Relevance of Moore's Law

[spiralx]

Don't get me wrong -- I've get nothing against faster processors. But my computer is already fast enough to play movies and do 99% of anything that I really want it to. If I'm not doing numerical integration, do I really need it to get any faster?

You don't and I don't (I was running a P133 until it broke) but there are a lot of requirements out there for fast computers. Look at this story for an example of a problem domain where superfast computers are required. There are a huge number of simulation tasks out there which can always use more power in order to use better models. And that can lead to any number of new technologies for us.

There'll always be a need for better computers. After all, since the smallest computer required to simulate the Universe is the Universe itself, we can always build a better machine to better simulate things.

Conway's Game of Life

[zpengo]

I remember reading a long time ago about small computers built using Conway's Game of Life. People with way too much free time on their hands actually sat down and started constructing logic gates, and then put those on a huge playing field where they could interact with each other and actually crunch numbers. I was impressed.

Molecular computing is a similar phenomenon. At this point it's not really feasible, but who knows what it could turn into? Once computers reach the microscopic level, then we can begin to see some cool things happening. It will be like the transition from vacuum tubes all over again!

And once more, the environment gets it

[streetlawyer]

Yeah, yeah, great idea, molecular computing. Never mind that the phenolacytithin molecules involved are proven carcinogens. Never mind that the manufacture of these horrifically toxic chemicals spreads huge amounts of di-ethyl-chloroplectythides (DEPs) over whatever luckless Third World country ends up having the plants sited there. Just so long as we get our new toys.

If you guys would just leave the computer room for a while, you might get some sense of proportion about what you're destroying. I happen to own a small ngwa in the limitless plains of Tanzania, bought with my share of the fees on a biggish corporate real estate settlement. It brings tears to my hard face to think of the despoliation that will be wreaked somewhere just as lovely, simply in order to produce more toxic shit so that somebody can play Quake a little bit faster.