Slashdot Mirror
Computer Made From DNA And Enzymes
develop writes "Some folks from Israel have created a computer that runs on DNA and enzymes and is supposedly 100,000 times faster then today's PCs. Information at National Geographic, Telegraph UK and United Press." According to the National Geographic story, this DNA-based computer "can perform 330 trillion operations per second, more than 100,000 times the speed of the fastest PC." However, be aware that most of this is still future tense, and what these researchers have now is just a proof-of-concept.
330 trillion calculations per second? Impressive, but can it run Doom 3?
Earlier today I hawked up a loogie in the parking lot. While at the moment it is only a puddle of goo, or "proof of concept", I predict that this collection of DNA and enzymes will someday be capable of performing over 330 trillion operations per second, more than 100,000 times the speed of the fastest PC!
In Soviet Rush, today's Tom Sawyer gets high on you.
Imagine a beowulf cluster of those machines...wait a minute, I am one!
I hear Feed Only Memory is the future of storage.
I don't think I'd be responsible enough to remember to feed my computer.
LFS. Have you built your system today?
WTF? Has the world gone mad?
I am made from DNA and enzymes!
My brain performs more than 330 trillion ops/sec (stuff like image analysis, speech recognition, "AI",...)
AND YOU DARE CALL ME "just a proof-of-concept"!?!?
Welcome to the miracle of birth (and cloning). This is the 21st century!
Listen, buddy. I'm the result of billions of years in the evolutionary compile-link-debug cycle. So just show some bloody respect. Would you like to see my proof-of-concept gross-human-mutilation firsthand? No? Then keep your childish insults to yourself!
(from Israel ... hmmm ... do they cut the PS/2 port off the end of the keyboard cable? *just kidding, folks* )
This sig intentionally left bla... dammit!
Who's got the whiteout?
Imagine what a beowulf of these would look like!
Perhaps a little like a scandinavian warrior from the 6th century!?
----
Go canucks, habs, and sens!
Yeah, and on page 79 is a article about a newly discovered Amazon tribe 'untouched by modern man'.
Yet the women have remarkably perky breasts..
"I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
from the National Geographic aritcle:
It can't, for example, correct a misspelled word
Slashdot must be running these DNA computers!
"the fax machine is nothing but a waffle iron with a phone attached to it." - Grandpa Simpson
Person1: What did you do with my laptop? Those things don't just grow legs and walk away!
...
Person2: Uhm, well, uhh, this one did
In the long run, we're all dead.
My brain performs more than 330 trillion ops/sec (stuff like image analysis, speech recognition, "AI",...)
The human brain has between 10 billion and 100 billion neurons. They can fire up to 100 times per second. 100 billion * 100/second is only 10 trillion per second.
So we must assume that either:
1. you have an enormous brain (3.3 trillion neurons would weigh about 50kg), or
2. that they fire very quickly, (you overclocked your brain and run around with a heatsinking hat and have to eat 20x a day) or
3. that you do some 'thinking' without using neurons.
Hmm, that last option seems to be the most reasonable. How's that working out for you, anyway?
Not just that, but they go from "have created" to "proof of concept" in the blink of an eye.
Well, technically not in the "blink" of an eye... the proof of concept is just in the eyelash.
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
Today we're computing with Denatured Alcohol.
When will the madness end?
KFG
So, when one of these catches a virus, it REALLY catches a virus. Better stock up on PC-cillin.
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
The immense benefit that this technology will have will be in fields like evolutionary computation.
Are you trying to say that DNA could be of some practical use in genetic algorithms? That's pretty hard to swallow.
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
you obviously haven't seen me throw a ball...
-calyxa
Decay! Decay! Decay! -Helium