Scientists develop biological computer to encrypt and decipher images

Scientists develop biological computer to encrypt and decipher images

www.physorg.com

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute in California and the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology have developed a "biological computer" made entirely from biomolecules that is capable of deciphering images encrypted on.

"Our biological computing device is based on the 75-year-old design by the English mathematician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist Alan Turing," Keinan said. "He was highly influential in the development of computer science, providing a formalization of the concepts of algorithm and computation, and he played a significant role in the creation of the modern computer. Turing showed convincingly that using this model you can do all the calculations in the world. The input of the Turing machine is a long tape containing a series of symbols and letters, which is reminiscent of a DNA string. A reading head runs from one letter to another, and on each station it does four actions: 1) reading the letter; 2) replacing that letter with another letter; 3) changing its internal state; and 4) moving to next position. A table of instructions, known as the transitional rules, or software, dictates these actions. Our device is based on the model of a finite state automaton, which is a simplified version of the Turing machine. "

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I can recall back in early year 2000 having an interview with a former Air Force Captain who also was into Research and Development for Darpa. The questions I had been asking were hitting brick walls and I was getting a lot of the old "Well, I can't talk about that.. or.. I really can't confirm or deny that" type of answers.

But when I asked what he thought would be a significant bit of technology that would change the way we lived. Well then the conversation got real interesting and he went on and on about quantum mechanics and the merging of technology with biology.

Well it looks like that day has finally arrived. But then again who knows when they first started working on this. I say that because one thing that stuck out in my mind was his comment that everything you could dream up had already been thought of, researched and models worked on over 40 years ago. Considering that was back in 2000, 40 years prior to that would've been back in the early 60's...

www.physorg.com
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DNA chips and biological computers..... Hmmmm, sounds very interesting. I will keep my eye on this one.

As for past government projects, my brother who is also a tight lipped ex-marien says it's hard to comprehend some of the things they have in the works, but we will find out about them in about 20 years or so.
Quad

Originally posted by Quadrivium

As for past government projects, my brother who is also a tight lipped ex-marien says it's hard to comprehend some of the things they have in the works, but we will find out about them in about 20 years or so.

Interesting that he said that.. This Captain I mentioned above said it's usually 20-25 years before it (what ever "It" might be) ever makes it out into the public.

Well that's interesting all in itself.

I recall reading about 9 years ago about AMD and Intel (the Chip Giants), had chips that were 10 and 15 times faster than what we have available "today" (that was 9 years ago). But that they both would hold off before introducing them into the public mainstream. They (whomever they are..), supposedly already have fiber-optics that can transfer 100 terrabits per second, but again, won't be released into the public for some time.

BTW.. That is the equivalent of sending 3 months of HD video in one second

Record-Breaking New Fiber Optic Cables Transmit 100 Terabits Per Second

All matter is conditioned to react. Each atom is conditioned to react in a certain way. When various atoms meet, depending on circumstances, they will in many cases interact. What we call "nature" is nothing but a field ready to be manipulated. The only real problem, of course, is the "purpose".

I read this and start thinking about Terminator and wondering when SkyNet is going to blow us all to kingdom come. But it's late here and probably just my overactive imagination.

Originally posted by AnIntellectualRedneck
I read this and start thinking about Terminator and wondering when SkyNet is going to blow us all to kingdom come. But it's late here and probably just my overactive imagination.

That is just symbolic. The real idea behind Skynet is to match social conditioning with biological. Society needs lots of obedient slaves in order to be "perfect". Likely, it is about machines

Well today would have been Alan Turings 100th birthday. Maybe he uploaded himself onto the net like they did in that X file ep "Kill Switch". Residing there as an Artificial Intelligent embodiment of trits. I swear I saw a picture of him at a party somewhere as a blond.

reply to post by JohnnyAnonymous


i can't say i understand the long term significance of this technology. but it does lead me to wonder.....

what happens if this technology is mixed with the dna of a virus or the plague?

could the virus or mold or bacteria think and develop its own defense against us?

or am i over thinking this technology?

-subfab

...What the crap kinda science fiction horror movie premise is this...

Originally posted by DangerDeath
All matter is conditioned to react. Each atom is conditioned to react in a certain way. When various atoms meet, depending on circumstances, they will in many cases interact. What we call "nature" is nothing but a field ready to be manipulated. The only real problem, of course, is the "purpose".

And the question is: Who or what put the information in there?

reply to post by subfab


could the technology mixed with the dna of a virus or bacteria or mold be used as a weapon?

-subfab

Thanks for the post OP. S&F

This isn't really "news" to me (and im sure a few others on this forum). This kind of computing has been around since the mid 70's and is being used for a lot of different things, ranging from solving mathematical equations to deflecting cyber-attacks to even possibly predicting the future accurately.

Also, if I understand correctly, the article claims that this type of computer can not compete with electric silicone based computers which is untrue.
Hybrid Silicon-DNA computers have the potential to even beat Quantum computers in many different ways (in theory) because of parallel computing. Just imagine a trillion of strands of DNA reading/writing/storing information all at the same time and instead of all this happening inside your body right now, it would be happening inside of a "tube" or another container and the information would be being passed right to the user (who if lucky, can keep up). This means that WE the users will be the truly outmatched/outclassed "bottleneck".
Something like that would make the fastest silicone-based supercomputer look like a simple 1940 typewriter (and even that is an understatement).

This makes me wonder; If this hasn't already happened in some secret underground base under some desert of course...
If we take this to the next level and start mass producing these things, hooking them up to the internet, allowing them to learn about each other, us, our behavior, the 3 dimensions of space and 1 dimension of time etc. will it/they become self-aware? Will we see a TRUE artificial intelligence emerge in the near future? If so, how will it perceive us and what would be the responsible thing for us to as their "creators" to prevent them from adopting certain fatal "flaws" from us?

I think we are still looking at this in a much too small way.. This could very well produce a huge paradigm shift in a lot of different fields and I fear that if we don't anticipate it and don't prepare for it, we, as a species, could be hit by a very very big sledgehammer.

reply to post by subfab


That would depend on the "type" of bio-computer, virus, interface etc.
And as there are literally an unlimited amount of configurations possible with Bio-computing, it is very possible and even probable that certain configurations would produce that kind of result and be weaponized.

Furthermore, if it is engineered that way (on purpose) then it is definitely possible and the results of something like that can also be limitless.


IT--

Originally posted by subfab
reply to post by JohnnyAnonymous

 

i can't say i understand the long term significance of this technology. but it does lead me to wonder.....

what happens if this technology is mixed with the dna of a virus or the plague?

could the virus or mold or bacteria think and develop its own defense against us?

or am i over thinking this technology?

-subfab

With a little bit of imagination it seems being able to program DNA sequences is the first step in many different directions such as biomechanics and disease control. One could be writing the code that makes us humans. If all of our protein synthesis and homeostatic functions can be converted into a familiar computer code we could do amazing things such as extend cell life (Telamorase - substance thought to increase telomere length and indefinitely extend cellular life) and code body types. mRNA is pretty much computer code in my eyes. Im sure someone is on the road to cracking the mRNA code that will open up the world of Biological Programming and Coding. The possibilities are seemingly limitless.