Re: Uploading to ACTUAL DNA-Based Neuronetwork?

Anders Sandberg (nv91-asa@nada.kth.se)
Mon, 16 Jun 1997 10:38:44 +0200 (MET DST)


On Sun, 15 Jun 1997 GMandanis@aol.com wrote:

> Has there been any R&D on the feasibility of an actual DNA-based
> Neuronetwork through cloning techniques (e.g. PCR), completely
> independent of bits/bytes and machines?

Are you talking about DNA computing? As far as I know, very little
*practical* work has been done since Adleman's famous use of DNA to
solve a simple instance of the Hamilton-path finding problem (I hope
I'm wrong), but there has been plenty of theoretical work done in the
field which shows that it is euqivalent to Turing-computability. It
might not look like bits/bytes and machines, but it is the same
thing.

(see the molecular computing links from my computing page at
http://www.aleph.se/Trans/Tech/Computing)

> If this is possible, then would we be able to get around the
> possible "limitations" and/or of computer simulations? Any ideas,
> or is this purely science fiction?

DNA computers (or other chemical computers) have the advantage of a
small scale and massive parallelism, but they are somewhat limited by
diffusion speeds, the amount of mass you can handle (combinatorial
explosions happen even here) and similar practical stuff.

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Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
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