How Will We Store What We
Learn?
Chapter 6
Urban and Sustainable Agriculture
Group
The Big Picture: A New Computer
• Problem: "Nature's computers don't work the way ours
do. To think that they do is very bad for society -- it
makes us use digital computers for tasks we ought to
be asking our brains to do -- tasks to which digital
computers are not suited."
• Solution: Design computer processors that are
powerful and fashioned off natures design with the
ability to evolve.
– Idea is that when we challenge the computer with difficult
problem solving, it will solve the problem and in the
process become more efficient. Then, when conditions
change, it will evolve.
The Problem with Computers
• Current computers are very different than our
brains
• For example…
– Computers cannot “learn to learn” and cannot deal
with unpredictability.
– Computers cannot interact with the complex
environment.
– Brains compute in massive parallels while computers
use linear processing.
– Brains are equipped to evolve by using side effects.
Computers must freeze out all side effects.
Solutions In Practice: Jigsaw Computing
• Michael Conrad created EVOLVE- the first attempt at artificial life. He wants
to create artificial life mimicking biological systems.
• Michael Conrad is now working on a new form of computing inspired by the
lock-and-key interactions of protein and enzyme. This is called Jigsaw
Computing.
• Jigsaw Computing
– Uses shape based principles and biosensors to “feel” its way to a
solution
– Hardware and software will be bred through artificial selection
– Will resemble an ecosystem made up of different “members”
challenging each to do work seamlessly together and up the ante
of performance.
– Each time enzymes make an error they will break apart to try new
configurations. Similar to how bio systems adapt to finding a
steady state.