Chaotic Computing In Practice

codyhess writes "The Economist published a great article detailing efforts to use Chaos in computing - "Speaking at the American Physical Society's annual March conference, William Ditto of the University of Florida told of his efforts to create a 'chaotic computer'." Dr. Ditto can create standard logic gates (AND, OR, etc) that output a value according the their chaotic threshhold. Different logic operations can be performed by simply changing the threshhold, making an incredibly flexible computer that can perfom different functions instantaneously."

Comments

Sounds similar to...

[robslimo]

analog computers of old. IIRC they were used for ballistics calculations and similar by the military.

Here is an example.

Look into what kind of mathematical operations can be realized with multiplying DACs.

IEEE Definition

[Bimo_Dude]

Apparently, this theory was first developed in 1996. Here is the IEEE Definition of chaotic computing.

The way I see it (although I am not a mathematician), the major hurdle to realizing this is the fact that generating random numbers usually results in patterns.

Re:IEEE Definition

[JGski]

Chaos != Random

Chaos is a middle-ground between purely ordered and purely random. There is structure in chaotic systems, it's only that on short orders of time it appears random to human neural signal processing - this is largely a limitation of the human capacity to perceive rather than a characteristic of the system observed.

Re:IEEE Definition

[jazmataz23]

There's a great paradox here. A few quick points: an accepted definition of a random number is one whose algorithm for construction is at least as long as the number itself. i.e. the number 0.142857142857... is not random, because the minimal algorithm that will construct it is simply 1/7. Numbers generated by rolling a dice can only be described by listing the sequence of dice roll results that created them.

Yes, most of the numbers in the space (0,1) are random. No, we cannot prove that any particular number is random. I *strongly* suggest reading The Dreams of Reason: The Computer and the Rise of the Sciences of Complexity by Heinz R. Pagels for an *excellent* treatment of these issues. An interesting point/counterpoint (with me being a bit of a troll at the outset, but I got props for him now) is here on slashdot is here

jaz

Re:Not chaotic? (Yes, you can control chaos)

[G4from128k]

Chaotic systems are actually quite controlloable in a very interesting way. The key property that makes a chaotic system so unpredictable is divergence -- if two copies of the system differ by delta, that delta will grow exponentially in time (doubling according to a coefficient call the Lyapunov coefficient). Yet, the divergence is never arbitrary. Instead, the divergence in chaotic systems happen within a space called the strange attractor - the diverging trajectories stay within in the attractor zone even as the split from each other.

If you map the strange attractor and nudge the system are the right point of the cycle, you can push the system into what ever mode of behaviro you want. Although you cannot predict the longterm behavior of the chaotic system, you can perturb it periodicaly to stabiize it or rapidlly shift its behavior. Scientists are looking at how to use this chaotic control theory to control unstable systems such as ultrahigh power lasers, manuerable jet aircraft, and heart tissue.

The key controlling a chaotic system is to understand how the chaotic system diverges (the shape of the strange attractor) and use that knowledge to deftly inject perturbations at just the right moment.

That's not how it goes.

[Annirak]

The real explanation is here

Then, one day, a student who had been left to sweep up the lab after a particulary unsuccessful party found himself reasoning this way:

If, he thought to himself, such amachine is a virtual impossibility, then it must logically be a finite improbability. So all I have to do in order to make one, is to work out exactly how improbable it is, feed that figure into the finite improbability generator, give it a fresh cup of really hot tea ... and turn it on!

He did this, and was rather startled to discover that he had managed to create the long sought after golden Infinite Improbability generater out of thin air.

It startled him even more when just after he was awarded the Galactic Institute's Prize for Extreme Cleverness he got lynced by a rampaging mob of respectable physicists who had finally realized that the one thing they really couldn't stand was a smartass.