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World's First Game-Playing DNA Computer
An anonymous reader writes "NewScientist.com posted an article today about the first game-playing 'computer' powered by DNA logic. An interesting read, although not at all a practical alternative for those looking to replace their PlayStation2 with the next great platform." The machine is "...an enzyme-powered tic-tac-toe machine that... uses a complex mixture of DNA enzymes to determine where it should place its nought or cross, and signals its move with a green glow."
Obligatory of course. However, maybe this time we can stick with a nice game of chess, eh?
to play a game? How about Global Thermonuclear War?
Reviews with a twist! http://www.sardonicbastard.com
A nice DNA-powered game of global thermonuclear war?
This may be perhaps one of the most off-topic posts of all time. As much as I support gay rights and whatnot, stick to the topic at hand :)
Play tic-tac-toe? "Stojanovic has lost to MAYA more than a 100 times." With semi-intelligent players I thought this game was pretty much guaranteed to generate a draw?
$#!^ happens, but why does it always have to happen to me???
Bah, my DNA's been playing Life for ages.
Sure, it might not be oxy enough and sure you can't yet boot Linux into it yet, but hell - you can read your proteins right off of it when booted into Messenger mode. Maybe developers are into this DNA thang right now, but let me be the first to say that the RNA console is tops!
When Leisure Suit Larry get ported, call me.
Upon actual reading, this was just a bad joke. Blargh.
From the article: "We could have programmed it to lose sometimes, to make humans happy," he told New Scientist. "But to say 'the automaton can not be defeated' has a nice ring to it."
Great. Can I quote you after humanity got defeated by DNA-based Uberhumans? But then again, if it's DNA-based we might be able to make holes in it with a bullets, right?
Naughts and crosses? I though you played tic tac to with xes and os. Man, I've been playing wrong all these years.
Excellent! Now we can hook it up to the US's nuclear missle launch mechanism, and we'll all be safe!
Do you want to play a game?
The Other Nate
Um, even I couldn't lose to a machine more than a 100 times at tic-tac-toe. It doesn't take a WOPR to learn that tic-tac-toe is surprisingly easy to grasp. I bet you could train a DNA-powered monkey to the same level of effectiveness as this silly human named Stojanovic.
here's a similar article titled "DNA basis for new generation of computers"
Game playing comes second only to porn as the driver of new technologies.
More seriously, this is a good time to look at how to model DNA computers on "normal" computers so that we can start abstracting the tools and techniques needed to design (breed?) the really complex patterns we'll need to exploit DNA technology.
Good stuff - in 20 years this may seem like the only way to compute, with silicon being as quaint as valve transistors.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
...welcome our new DNA-based tic-tac-toe playing overlords.
How long until somebody makes a DNA-based machine that can play a decent game of Go?
I'm taking bets on 20 years.
3D Printing Tips and Tricks at Zheng3.com
I'll dump some DNA on my wifes face tonight, then say "your move".
Essentially they have 9 enzymes to specify the nine possible moves of the player. Once a move is chosen the enzyme for that position is added to each of the nine wells. The DNA inside each well is aware of its location, and, of course, each of the player's moves since the enzymes are added to each well.
The DNA in each well makes a simple logic decision based on all the enzymes it currently detects and turns green to indicate that the dna 'computer' is choosing to move there.
Overall it's an interesting logic puzzle, not only because it's done in DNA, but because the method involves seperate logic cells which have no means of communication - only the knowledge that they know everything that their brethren know.
It has weaknesses in that it's easy to fool them all individually so they all light green.
Probably has many good applications in chemical sniffing and quite possibly future DNA analysis speed ups.
-Adam
I've never been a leet gamer by any means but now I can add enzymes to the long list of organisms that are capable of beating me at computer games.
Apparently, Leonard Adleman of the University of Southern California used his DNA based computer to solve the travelling salesman problem by exploiting the predictability of how DNA interacts. "Adleman used his computer to solve the classic "traveling salesman" mathematical problem -- how a salesman can visit a given number of cities without passing through any city twice -- by exploiting the predictability of how DNA interacts. Adleman assigned each of seven cities a different strip of DNA, 20 molecules long, then dropped them into a stew of millions of more strips of DNA that naturally bonded with the "cities." That generated thousands of random paths, in much the same way that a computer can sift through random numbers to break a code. From this hodgepodge of connected DNA, Adleman eventually extracted a satisfactory solution -- a strand that led directly from the first city to the last, without retracing any steps. DNA computing was born".
Apparently, a single gram of DNA can store as much information as a trillion CDs.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
I see a movie in the works..... aint that right boo TRuueeeee
That's O or X in the US of A, baby. :-)
Crosses and naughts...sheesh.
If you or someone you know is tired of poking their fingers for tic-tac-toe blood samples you should try our new DNA testing supplies...
---
Lousy rotten karmic retribution.
I wonder if I could get some DNA from Kasparov and play a wicked hard game of chess.
Yep. But mayby the rules mutate as you go. I mean it's the DNA tic-tac-toe we are talking about.
1. Millions of dollars of investment, thousands of man and machine hours...
2. DNA-powered Tic Tac Toe
3. ?
Who took my tinfoil hat?
Slashdotters already play LOTS of games with DNA...mostly solitare, though, as I understand.
Ceci n'est pas un post.
this gives a new meaning to "Powered by Nvidia"
People have been worried about an unleashed nanobot replicating copies of itself and turning the world into a grey goo.
Grey goo I can live with - an earth sized Xs and Os planet I cannot.
I for one am getting the first ticket out of here.
Shouldn't one of these computers already evolved out the goo found in swamps today? Considering thats how we came about and all...
from http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tic-tac-toe
"In a normal 3x3 tic-tac-toe game, both players have a strategy to draw the game. In fact, any move by the first player leads to a draw with best play.
"Statistically the best opening move is in one of the corners, after this move has been made if the opponent takes any square other than the centre one, then the first player can play in such a way that a win is certain, as shown in the above game. "
-Adam
Been there, done that.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
1. Find joke used 1,000 times already.
2. Use it wrong.
3. ???
4. Karma!
Thank yew.
You are too cool. When I read that, I heard the voice in my head. Thanks for the memory.
Yeh I realize DNA is a molecule. But if this computer were running of off, say, some chemical other than DNA, would it be as interesting? DNA implies life, whereas other chemicals (aside from caffeine) do not. But a DNA computer is no more alive than the silicon-based PC I'm using right now. I know DNA molecules have interesting properties, and I'm not saying this is about clever marketing. But I think the fact that the molecule being used here is DNA makes this much more interesting than it would be if the molecule were anything else. JMHO, though. An alcohol-based PC is a novelty, but a DNA-based PC is amazing....
Stupid people make stupid things profitable.
And since DNA is already involved in porn and sex in so many ways, this was basically the logical continuation. As long as I'm not DNA-spammed by malevolent viruses, I'm happy.
Opinions stated are mine and do not reflect those of the Illuminati
>The human player makes his or her moves by dropping DNA into 3 by 3 square
No comment...
Holy jesus you're a fucking idiot.
We all know how that story works out!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
the kind of viruses that could be created? The thought is mind blowing!
From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
According to this article, Stojanovic rigged the rules so that MAYA can't lose. It's assumed that MAY goes first and takes the center square, and the human takes either the upper left or the square beneath it.
Exit, pursued by a bear.
ur mom is a marsupial
The article (yes I RTFA) states that it is interactive, but how long does it take for the 'computer' to make it's move?
Enig? Det alt for hot det smor!
There are 10 kinds of people in the world > > Those who understand binary and those who don't
"Son, don't do that, you'll go blind!"
"Dad, I'm over here."
This chicken may not be around anymore, but a little Googling will show other references.
And yes, I can admit to having lost a few games to her, too.
"For every right, an equal responsibility..."
Our new molecular overlords demand tribute in the form of our DNA!
Personally, I like to pay tribute at least three times a day and have shown my devotion by doing so since I was 11 years old!
I am the true servent of The Molecular Overlords (tm)!!!
Not suprisingly, none of the moderating slashbots did recognize this.
Beating a DNA Logic game is not a problem... or so says O.J. Simpson and crew.
I'm really troubled over the fact that you misspell Jesus Christ and yet you capitalize JFK and USA.
The opportunities for political humor are endless...
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
For those who don't know, the first "video game" was, in fact, a game of tic-tac-toe (naughts and crosses for some of you out there)
http://www.pong-story.com/1952.htm
If you don't have an EDSAC at home (of course you don't) you can get the emulator and the origional code A.S. Douglas wrote here:
http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~edsac/
recompile.org
Hope these guys don't find out about it.
So basically what you can do is write your own DNA strands and let existing cellular structures act on them to get the results you want. If you used other molecules, you'd have to create the read structures, the method of passing information around (proteins) and so on.
-
Well there it is! If it requires our intelligence to make some bits of dna play tic-tac-toe, clearly there was a creator that made it do something as complicated as make us. I may as well give up my work toward a PhD evolutionary biology right now. Damn scientists proving the existence of God... excuse me, that's "intelligent designer".
Most exciting phrase in science: not "Eureka!" but "Hmm... That's funny..." -Asimov (abridged for \. limits)
...uses a complex mixture of DNA enzymes to determine where it should place its nought or cross...
Is it one of those obscure biblical units, like a cubit?
'Doth Job fear God for nought? --Job i. 9.'
Maybe it's some kind of animated character that ruins pizzas for fun.
Sometimes I worry that I'll develop Alzheimer's disease, but no one will notice.
an alcohol based pc...what i've always wanted. computing and beer in one
... the only winning move is not to play."
... cuz if it can, then i'll be impressed with its computing power.
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
I imagine he lost in order to test the system.
No electrons were harmed creating this post, though some may have been subjected to electrical and/or magnetic fields.
Step 3: Millions more spent on hardware, software, and DNAware.
Step 4: DNA-powered Tribes 2! Rapture! Joy!
Step 5: Millions more spent.
Step 6: DNA-powered (insert name of any game here)
Step 7: ?
Revised Table
Step away from the idiocy. Now. But first, a word from your sponsors!
...that you can build a tictactoe playing machine, that learns to play from experience with a bunch of matchboxes and marbles. It's in a Martin Gardner book as well as a Scientific American article.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Molecules could, for example, assess faults in a living cell and then either kill or repair it.
Boy, gives the phrase "Blue Screen of Death" a whole new meaning, right?
Uh, only there's no screen. And you don't turn blue.
But what would happen if these mini DNA logic gates all went haywire, or something. Like if they, say mutated, as DNA is sometimes wont to do (granted, IANAG). But say these things went haywire and decided that all your cells must die. What then?
I, for one, do not want to welcome any DNA overlords into my body cavities.
Karma: Chevy Kavalierma.
And since DNA is already involved in porn and sex in so many ways, this was basically the logical continuation. As long as I'm not DNA-spammed by malevolent viruses, I'm happy.
Well, we've already got DNA spam; it's called... umm... SPAM.
How about... Global Viral Outbreak?
The government's moral compass is controlled by GPS.
In times of crises, they alter it to suit their needs.
Actually he lost 50 times. He lost another 50 times betting on the instant replay.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Yipes, hope they do not use some Doom mod code I've seen! Code with comments like " this should take all your extra lives away"
OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
I agree... I mean, how do we know that these so-called "girls" actually exist?
It could all be a hoax! Like the famous 9" penis and everlasting printer cartridge. Yes, yes, it all makes sense now.
Parent insightful, parent insightful!
Ceci n'est pas une signature
So no version of pong yet?
1. Millions of dollars of investment, thousands of man and machine hours... 2. DNA-powered Tic Tac Toe 3. Millions more... 4. DNA-powered Pentium 450i running Half Life 3 5. Drool...
Free speech is getting expensive...
Does this mean uber- advanced computer technology or just a new way of gathering chance and probability? The way I see it, this DNA is a new way of probability, finding out where to stick the next nought or cross on a nine square board. Sure its cool, and it opens up new possibilities, in science and Quake 3 gaming.
----- Friends, l33tists, l4m3z0rs! Lend me thy keyboards.
That's why you don't get karma for being funny anymore.
-- Cheers!
3. Stupid moderators
I, for one, do not want to welcome any DNA overlords into my body cavities.
;-D
Uhhhh, that's not what I heard
Freedom: "I won't!"
Of course this wuould be the first senseful purpose for a computer of that kind...
"I am slashbot, hear me roar!"
We need SCREENSHOTS!
Aren't games already enough like life forms?
Tetris for instance is the next best thing to a virus, afterall, think of how simple and yet utterly addictive it was until attention deficit disorder offered us a cure.
Do we have to make games INTO life forms?
With semi-intelligent players I thought this game was pretty much guaranteed to generate a draw?
Yeah, I once had a tic-tac-toe game that was basically programmed with a database of every possible board, and the best possible move in every case. You couldn't win against the thing, you could only draw, or lose.