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: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.