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Japanese Researchers Create A Crab-Based Computer

Posted by samzenpus on from the 8gb-of-pincer dept.

mikejuk writes "You can build a computer out of all sorts of things — mechanical components, vacuum tubes, transistors, fluids and ... crabs. Researchers at Kobe University in Japan have discovered that soldier crabs have behaviors suitable for implementing simple logic and hence — with enough crabs — you can achieve a complete computer. The Soldier crab Mictyris guinotae has a swarming behavior that is just right for simple logic gates (PDF). When two crab swarms collide they fuse to make a single swarm — and this is enough to build an OR gate."

19 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. Overheat by simtel · · Score: 5, Funny

    And just think: if it overheats, your computer becomes delicious

    1. Re:Overheat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, but then you'll have to shell out for a new one. It might be nice in a pinch, but in the end I'll bet you'd just spend all your time trying to claw back some sort of function.

  2. One day by avandesande · · Score: 5, Funny

    My crotch will become sentient!

    --
    love is just extroverted narcissism
    1. Re:One day by Concerned+Onlooker · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I wanted to mod this but there is no "ew, gross" option.

      --
      http://www.rootstrikers.org/
    2. Re:One day by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Mine already does most of my thinking.

  3. You're a long way from a proof, buddy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    One of the hardest things about proving emergent automata to be equivalent to, for instance, Turing mahines, is not showing that specific operations can be duplicated. The hardest part is showing that the thing doesn't degenerate when more complex interactions are necessary.

    If they could build more than just a simple gate -- say, a flip flop, I would be more impressed.

    1. Re:You're a long way from a proof, buddy by Reality+Master+301 · · Score: 5, Funny

      You're just being shellfish

  4. So, the next SONY VAIO... by Quarters · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...will be able to be hit in its weak spot for MASSIVE DAMAGE!

  5. I'd like to see.. by boaworm · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'd really like to see what they wrote on their research grant application...

    --
    Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
    Aristotele
    1. Re:I'd like to see.. by oldhack · · Score: 3, Funny

      They are Japanese - I hear they're pretty open-minded about these sorta things, you know, claws and tentacles and stuff.

      --
      Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
  6. Research > science fiction by fleeped · · Score: 2

    Seriously, in terms of imaginative ways to accomplish stuff, researchers beat the shit out of everybody.

  7. Who needs an Ipad3? by GoodNewsJimDotCom · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why not Zoidberg?

    --
    God spoke to me
  8. Try Explaining That One To Airport Security by bschorr · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can't wait to see the laptop version...

    --
    -B-
    1. Re:Try Explaining That One To Airport Security by JosephTX · · Score: 5, Funny

      you can get that version in most shady motels and bars.

  9. Terry Pratchett's big mistake by Kupfernigk · · Score: 3, Funny
    Instead of writing about an ant-powered computer (slogan: "Anthill inside") he should have taken out a US patent on it.

    Method and implementation of a digital computer in which binary digits are living beings [..]

    Claim 36: A computer as described in Claims 1-30 in which the digits are members of the phylum Arthropoda
    Claim 37: A computer in which the members of Claim 36 are further members of sub-phylum Crustacea
    Claim 38: A computer in which the members of Claim 36 are further members of sub-phylum Insecta
    Claim 39: A read only memory in which storage is by means of members of the Phylum Arthropoda which have both a motile and a sessile stage, such as barnacles.

    --
    From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
  10. interesting by circletimessquare · · Score: 2

    because norwegian researchers already have implemented the natural communication protocol for these sorts of computers:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carriers

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  11. Obligatory... by cigawoot · · Score: 3, Funny

    But will it play Doom?

  12. Human computer by thereitis · · Score: 2

    Get your tin foil hat ready. What computer program are *we* running? Make the rich richer 2.0?

  13. I for one, by excelsior_gr · · Score: 2

    welcome our supercomputing, sidewise crawling crab overlords.