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Microchips That Evolve
An Onymous Coward writes: "A scientist in Britain has apparently developed some genetic algorithms that run on microchips that can alter themselves, in other words, hardware that evolves. Pretty cool. Check out the column by Paul Gilster." The article contributes some background I'd never heard before regarding FPGAs, and even mentions the dogged Starbridge. A short but fun read.
Now, that's a big claim. Most important EVER?
Consider: no other technological progress to date has ever changed the fundamental nature of Man and his tools. We are the Tool-Using Ape, and all of our technological toys and bombs are just extensions of the first person picking up a stick. He/she could use that stick in many ways, from agriculture to communication to personal hygiene to warfare. Essentially all of the other tools we have ever invented are extensions of that original concept -- specialized forms of stick.
Our sticks have gotten very complex, to the point where most of us navigate in ignorance through a world of astonishing complexity. Very few of us understand something so simple as indoor plumbing, but we are thoroughly dependent on it. This is all old news and we are well used to it -- if the plumbing breaks, call a plumber. If the car breaks, go see a mechanic. If the computer breaks, post on Slashdot from another one and hope to god you pick out the truly informed answer from the barrage of ignorant suggestions. But I digress. :-)
This is where this new technology is important. This isn't just a stick anymore. With all of our existing tools, someone, somewhere invented them, and someone somewhere knows how to fix them when they break. No matter how complex or intimidating the tool, if you are willing to devote enough resources to the problem, you find an expert who understands the technology you are using and can fix it. In the cases of unforeseen interactions between complex systems, like computer software, it may be necessary to consult many experts, but ultimately all of the tools we use are sticks, someone invented them, and someone can fix them.
And that relationship is what is now changing, for the first time since that first person picked up a stick and used it to scratch, we are starting to use tools that we did not invent and that nobody, anywhere understands.
This is an incredibly big deal. We are talking about starting to use tools that are essentially not deterministic in their uses. Different versions of the same tool may work better than others, even though nobody quite understands why.
Consider some of the ramifications: Perhaps your specific tool will have learned how to trace cables or diagnose car engine trouble better than other people's, and you can charge more for your services because of that. Or maybe your gizmo calibrator just doesn't work properly unless you hold it upside down. And what if your computer develops an amazing ability to pick stocks if you consult it after midnight on Tuesday, but sinks into a blue funk and refuses to even talk to you if you fail to address it as "Lord Master Xerxes of Apollo"??
What we are talking about here is sticks with intelligence. Admittedly this is just the very beginning of what, I presume, will be a long slow (dare I say it) evolution of the tools. Taking things out to an extreme, it is not inconceivable that we might end up with tools that have moral or ethical reservations about being used for what we want to use them for. Or we might see guns that *like* to kill and look for excuses to do so. 'It was my sidearm, Your Honor, it just went off unexpectedly.'
Arthur C. Clarke's most famous quote was, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." I really am starting to wonder if we're not going to end up in an age of tools that are so smart that using them resembles incantation and gesture -- in essence the casting of spells.
What happens when we become dependent on tools that NOBODY understands or invented?
In a weird sideways tangent, I am reminded of a wise observation that, I believe, Louis L'Amour had about the early war in America between the settlers and the Indians. He pointed out that the Indians lost not because of being outgunned, or because of the sheer numbers of European colonists, but rather because they became dependent on firearms with which to fight, and could not themselves manufacture them. That meant that to fight the colonists, they needed the colonists as arms suppliers. They couldn't drive out the colonists without the colonists' help. Their loss of cultural identity was inescapable as soon as they picked up guns.
If we flesh intelligences end up at odds with silicon ones, and we are dependent on them and cannot duplicate their services with our old sticks and rocks -- we will lose.
Like I said, this is a big deal.
Now, imagine in the future you have one of these GPFPGA chips in your PC. What is to stop a malicious hacker (or is it cracker?) from planting a logic bomb in the very hardware of your PC ?
This technology seems like a retrograde step if we are concerned with the reliability of our hardware. I urge slashdot readers to boycott any PCs which use this dangerous new technology.