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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."

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

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

  4. 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.
  5. Who needs an Ipad3? by GoodNewsJimDotCom · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why not Zoidberg?

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

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

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    -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.

  7. 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."
  8. Re:You're a long way from a proof, buddy by Reality+Master+301 · · Score: 5, Funny

    You're just being shellfish

  9. Obligatory... by cigawoot · · Score: 3, Funny

    But will it play Doom?