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Computers Will Be Built By Living Cells
axxackall contributes a link to Richard Black's report on BBC suggesting that "Computers of the future will be built not by factory machines, but by living cells such as bacteria. Scientists 'have described how wires can now be made by yeast organisms, and how solar panels could be built using substances produced by sea sponges. Researchers believe these kind of technologies will be essential if we are to continue to shrink the size of electronic devices.' But 'Computers made with these natural processes are not just around the corner -- it will be many years before the technologies can be developed that far.' While scientists think about small sizes and environmental benefits, I also think if it would be possible to implant such bacteria for additional computational power in human brains -- just in case we have to upgrade them." Update: 02/17 20:23 GMT by T : I chopped out that link accidentally, sorry.
Only I can't, 'cause there's no link....
Another excuse not to do the dishes. I can just say I'm waiting for them to start making computers...
--Forest C. Adcock--
Billy Joe! You overclocked your brain didn't you? Don't bother denying it young man, I see the steam coming out of your ears!
"I also think if it would be possible to implant such bacteria for additional computational power in human brains -- just in case we have to upgrade them."
And just what exactly are these bacteria going to eat while they're inside your skull to build all these little computer parts? Brain tissue? Meninges? Cerebrospinal fluid? Do tell.
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And just what exactly are these bacteria going to eat while they're inside your skull to build all these little computer parts? Brain tissue? Meninges? Cerebrospinal fluid? Do tell.
I'd wager that they'd subside on the same nutrients from the bloodstream that everyone else does.
I can think of a President of the United States who could use a brain flash. Upgrade him out of the alpha release he's currently using.
The answer is 42. What is the question?
If this were easy, they wouldn't need us to do it!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/2003/ denver_2003/2765077.stm
I can't find the article on BBC but United Press has one here
Friday, 14 February, 2003, 23:32 GMT
Biology to make mini machines
By Richard Black
BBC science correspondent
Computers of the future will be built not by factory machines, but by living cells such as bacteria.
That at least is the vision which has been outlined by scientists speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Denver.
They have described how wires can now be made by yeast organisms, and how solar panels could be built using substances produced by sea sponges.
Researchers believe these kind of technologies will be essential if we are to continue to shrink the size of electronic devices.
Science of the small
Plants and animals produce an extraordinary variety of chemical substances, all designed to help them in their lives. But some of these substances - proteins or other kinds of molecule - might also be useful in the electronics industry, as it seeks ways of making silicon chips smaller and faster.
Another potential application is nanotechnology - science which is done at the scale of just billionths (nano) of a metre.
Materials fabricated at this level have unusual electrical and optical properties but are costly to produce. Getting the "machinery" that already exits in biological organisms to do the work has obvious advantages.
Some of the molecules that scientists are now investigating come from unlikely sources. Susan Lindquist, director of the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is using yeast to produce tough wires.
"We're using a protein from yeast that is actually called yeast prion," she said.
"It resembles the prions that are responsible for mad cow disease. They form long, long fibres.
"They are very thin - just 10 nanometres in width. But they go on for thousands and thousands and thousands of nanometres in length."
Dr Lindquist has discovered how to coat these strands of prion protein in gold and silver so they conduct electricity.
Captured rays
Through genetic engineering, it should be possible to make the protein strands - and so the wires - in different shapes and configurations, perhaps even forming entire electronic components.
Another researcher speaking here, Daniel Morse from the University of California, found a number of years ago that substances developed by sea sponges could be used to make silicon-based materials.
He has now discovered that the same substances could potentially make a new generation of solar cells.
They make a material, a special kind of titanium dioxide, which is very efficient at turning the Sun's rays into electricity.
Dr Morse believes that making devices through biology rather than through factories would have other benefits, including for the environment.
Human ingenuity
He said: "Biology and bio-catalysis offers the prospects of synthesis without the recourse to toxic chemicals that are presently the basis of human manufacturing of silicon-based materials today."
Computers made with these natural processes are not just around the corner - it will be many years before the technologies can be developed that far.
But sea sponges and yeast offer us the possibility of making devices smaller, cheaper and cleaner than human ingenuity could develop on its own.
Perhaps we should not be surprised, says Susan Lindquist. After all, nature has been working on the problem for a lot longer than the human brain.
She said: "For a long time man has been harnessing horses to plough and we're just beginning to understand how to harness molecules to other kinds of purposes and just the prospect of being able to do this for the benefit of mankind is really an exciting thing."
This article brings up the quest for nanontech- we've got plenty of functional "nanotechnology" right now in the form of living cells. Maybe its a good idea to see what they can do before reinventing the wheel.
I recall using antibody-based dyes when I was a grad student in Neuroanatomy a decade ago. One basically used cultured antibodies to attach to certain substances in tissue being examined, carrying dyes with them. Primitive compared to this, but it did use pre-existing "biotechnology"
"The Sage treasures Unity and measures all things by it" - Lao Tzu
I also think if it would be possible to implant such bacteria for additional computational power in human brains -- just in case we have to upgrade them."
Uhh, screw that... Personally, I think as soon as we're technologically able, we should move away from the whole biology thing. Being in a meat body sucks sledgehammers thru a garden hose. Especially when you're considered lunch for pretty much everything on this earth that can move under it's own power, and several more that can't.
I mean, being a biological organism has hundreds of drawbacks, not the least of which is the extremely limited environment that such organisms must occupy if they want to keep working. Imagine a brain capable of working in temperatures ranging from sub-freezing to plus-boiling, rather than the what, twenty whole degrees we've got now? (ten if you're using Celsius). It frees up a great deal of flexibility for the design of new bodies, and the best part is, nothing naturally occuring on this earth would think we're tasty.
That said, and to get back on topic, I don't think we'll ever really see the day when bacteria are used to manufacture circuits. Trace sizes are already smaller than most living organisms, and they're difficult to work with at best. Plus, in the decade or so that they think it'll take to get this up and running, circuit requirements will be such that even engineered organisms are totally innapropriate for the task. In a few decades more, mass-produced nanoassembly should be the state of the art for this type of manufactured goods.
If you think you get funny looks NOW-
"Ummm, what are you doing to the server?"
"Why, sprinkling blood on the motherboard. The server requires a sacrifice to stay healthy and running!"
There's no wrong way, to eat a Rhesus...
Getting the really small clean rooms and equipment for the bacteria to use.
Get a free ipod.
If you're going to put bacteria into your system on purpose, perhaps the lower intestine is best suited, as it already has a complement of commensals.
Then you could do your thinking closer to where the rest of us do ;-)
Free book: Science Toys You Can Make
"I also think if it would be possible to implant such bacteria for additional computational power in human brains"
Uh-huh. You go first.
The most important factor that makes computers (machines) work is the randomlessness they have. It is even hard (or almost impossible) to build a really random number using a computer. On the other hand, living cells of any kind have much higher randomness, would they really be able to control how large this random factor is?
"What you 'seek' is what you get!"
Gaia is the greco-roman earth goddess. She was married to Ouranos (sky god) and gave birth to the Titans.
She also had a nice set of hooters. Gods don't marry goddesses with small boobs.
Trolling is a art,
Well, this isn't a new idea. But there's problems with it. The biggest is that the existing living computing cells we have to work with are very, very slow. Yes, they work in parallel and may actually do calculations using electrons at a quantum level. We should be able to duplicate this at some point with more conventional techniques, though. Also, while there would seem like living cells would have a cost and efficiency advantage, our current techniques for building microchips are themselves rather efficient. Lithography is somewhat similar to xeroxing endless copies based on a template. Most of the cost and complexity is involved in quality control, design, and contaiminant management....which wouldn't go away if we used neurons.
At least in science fiction is a recurrent theme (I think the first book I read about this was "Fundation's Edge" from Asimov). A sentient live planet, a global mind or something like it.
In this context, well, if all those "cells" of a big network have a common concience, or as a whole gains it, well, will be similar. Like a collective mind in a global scale.
"Scientists have described how wires can now be made by yeast organisms..."
So does the mean that computer viruses of the future will be known as...yeast infections?
Being in a meat body sucks
;- )
Virgin!
You can't take the sky from me...
It can be programmed!
By altering its DNA sequence, we can program a biological cell to do dammed near anything. We have the codes for Electric Eels. We have the codes for Photosynthesis. We have the codes to make light. We have the codes to make motion. And its completely recyclable! Foo, if it wears out or no longer provides and intended function, we can even feed it to the cat!
What are we waiting for, fellas! This is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
The Genome is source code!
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
You know the one with the smart gorillas that are protecting the diamond mine. Except the gorillas are really tiny sea sponges making solar panels. That, and there are no diamonds.
Man, that guy is smart.
The problem to programming cells is that the program being run is likely very simple, but produces extremely complex results (and no, this is not my idea, but the idea of others - its most recent proponent is Stephen Wolfram - read his book "A New Kind of Science" for more info on this).
Now, I know I am going to be flamed or ridiculed by that last statement, but after having read the book, and realizing its implications (while simultaneously realizing that I will have to re-read the book many times over to truely understand it), I honestly believe that what Wolfram has done is original. True, there were many others before him - but he has managed to take the collected works, and work out a verbalized theory of what all of it means (instead of it continuing to be just a collection of individual research papers and such). Many others before him came close to that verbalization (which he acknowledges in the text), but did not continue with the thread of thought, or publish it in some manner.
If this is something that interests you, you owe it to yourself to read the book (as well as other books on such ideas as "emergence" - look up "Out of Control", the title of a good book on this phenomena). Also look up "Matrioshka Brains", "Sanger Institute: C. Elegans Project", "Singularity", and of course, "Nanotech", "Foresight Institute" - also "Hans Moravec".
Google on this information, it is *all* related. If you begin to understand it all, you should become both frightened and excited, all at the same time. You should also begin to question your own sanity, as well as the sanity of the world around you. Much of what is out there seems like it is something that borders on the "lunatic fringe", but once you really start to study it, it doesn't sound that implausible at all (especially the emergence stuff, and the way large corporations appear to act, if looked at as being emergent entity beings).
Have fun, and good luck (oh, btw, keep this in mind - if emergent behavior is a true thing - and everything points to that it is, as long as feedback loops exist - then what would you as a human do if one of your neurons suddenly became sentient, and realized that it made up a "whole" greater than the sum of the parts? Now, look on that as what happens if a human can figure out how a "corporate entity being" is "thinking" - don't you think that being would look to "exterminate" that rogue unit?)...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon