As a person who trained as a Biochemist and Computational Chemist and then went on to develop business systems, I was struck about the similarities between how computer scientists and bioligical systems handle complexity.
When I was learning the concepts of EJB's and remote processing, I began to see patterns between how Cells intercommunicate and the way Clients/Servers work. I began to see similarities between how cells set up "firewalls" and open firewalls and the way we do it in computing.
As an OO programmer, I began to look at the design patterns we use in OOAD and the design patterns cells use, both internally and externally.... Wish I was back in graduate school!!!! What a dissertation!!!!
There have to be levels of abstraction when ANYTHING deals with complexity and "fuzzyness". Cells do this very well (aided by eons of evolution). To solve some of the problems we have in computer science, maybe we should look at how Biology does it. We don't have to create biological computers, we just have to look, understand the abstractions and see how they apply to other problems.
I started doing work on Protien Folding at LSU as an undergraduate in the 70's. We were taking poly-peptides and looking at conformal changes (bond angles using LRD) of short poly-peptides when you changed the concentration of certain ions in solution.
Althought we didn't have the computing power then, I sort of envisioned being able to do those calculations in future times. But I got drafted and then had a family and went to OTS and spent the next 20 years in the Air Force.
After retiring from the USAF, I went back to get a PhD in Computational Chemistry... but got greedy when I found out I could make more money just programming simple business applications.
Anyway...
I don't think as long as we are going to be calculating the LJP (Lenord Jones Potential) between all the "units" in a "system" (Protein plus solution - since you can't divorce one from the other) or Atomic Potential etc etc are we going to be able to do effective simulations. Like you said, there are just too many variables. Even a "biologically" derrived computing architecture won't work.
Changes in confirmation of one even electron simultaneously effects the free energy of the entire system, which effects the "bendability" of bonds throughtout the system, which effects the process of confirmation changes throughout the system. Not a fun thing to calculate.
In graduate school I was doing research into Micelle formation and to calculate 1 femto second took a day's worth of computer time!
Maybe when we get down to quantum computers we will have to processing power to do this.
Any-way... Chosen-few? Look again.
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When I was learning the concepts of EJB's and remote processing, I began to see patterns between how Cells intercommunicate and the way Clients/Servers work. I began to see similarities between how cells set up "firewalls" and open firewalls and the way we do it in computing.
As an OO programmer, I began to look at the design patterns we use in OOAD and the design patterns cells use, both internally and externally.... Wish I was back in graduate school!!!! What a dissertation!!!!
There have to be levels of abstraction when ANYTHING deals with complexity and "fuzzyness". Cells do this very well (aided by eons of evolution). To solve some of the problems we have in computer science, maybe we should look at how Biology does it. We don't have to create biological computers, we just have to look, understand the abstractions and see how they apply to other problems.
I started doing work on Protien Folding at LSU as an undergraduate in the 70's. We were taking poly-peptides and looking at conformal changes (bond angles using LRD) of short poly-peptides when you changed the concentration of certain ions in solution. Althought we didn't have the computing power then, I sort of envisioned being able to do those calculations in future times. But I got drafted and then had a family and went to OTS and spent the next 20 years in the Air Force. After retiring from the USAF, I went back to get a PhD in Computational Chemistry... but got greedy when I found out I could make more money just programming simple business applications. Anyway... I don't think as long as we are going to be calculating the LJP (Lenord Jones Potential) between all the "units" in a "system" (Protein plus solution - since you can't divorce one from the other) or Atomic Potential etc etc are we going to be able to do effective simulations. Like you said, there are just too many variables. Even a "biologically" derrived computing architecture won't work. Changes in confirmation of one even electron simultaneously effects the free energy of the entire system, which effects the "bendability" of bonds throughtout the system, which effects the process of confirmation changes throughout the system. Not a fun thing to calculate. In graduate school I was doing research into Micelle formation and to calculate 1 femto second took a day's worth of computer time! Maybe when we get down to quantum computers we will have to processing power to do this. Any-way... Chosen-few? Look again.