Biochemical Computing

Today's computing is rapidly approaching a solid, impenetrable wall -- and I don't mean just the death of Moore's Law -- although that is a big place to start. The limitations of today's computing can be seen in every component of the computing stack.

• Heat and electron tunneling is becoming a problem for processor manufacturers as they go smaller and smaller in packing transistors on chips.
• In memory, DRAM is prone to electromagnetic interference; SRAM requires a lot of power; and flash memory decay after too many uses.
• In storage, media isn't lasting long or getting much smaller, but demand is rapidly growing.
• Software is becoming too complex to maintain even as more complexity is required to do solve unique problems.
• Computers are power hungry, with estimates putting the US consumption at 53 billion kilowatt hours annually.
• The human-machine interface is a huge bottleneck between the human brain and the computer, where some interfaces were designed, in some cases, to slow down our interface, while others are based on interfaces with antiquated media.

According to Forrester, "today's computers are dumb and dead: the can't create, feed, or repair themselves; they can't navigate the everyday world; and they can't evolve on their own." The natural world offers solutions to overcome this barrier, in what Forrester labels the Biochemical Computing Stack -- which they defined as "organic and biochemical enhancements and alternatives to traditional interface, memory, processing, communication, and power technologies."

So what does that mean?

• The use of the properties and shapes of proteins to process information in massively parallel and fast way known as "jigsaw computing."
• The use of organic molecules, proteins, carbon nanotubes and DNA to create molecular data storage devices. The DNA within our bodies for instance "is a massively redundant data store of about a yottabyte." Further, DNA is chemically inert, so it stays around for a long time.
• Biological techniques can be employed to grow materials, where the limit to construct those materials are limited to humans and machines.
• Software can be designed to use to use the techniques of biological interactions to solve everyday problems.
• Biological organisms have an efficient way of getting energy from glucose or sunlight. Leveraging those sources would make available, cheap and abundant energy.
• Interactive displays could be manufactured using cheap organic light-emitting diodes.
• immersive user experiences can be had via interfaces that tap into all of our senses -- not just visual or auditory.
• Already, machine-human interfaces are helping those with hearing or visual impairments -- next, a richer interface via brain-machine interfaces.

If you think any of those possibilities are speculation, you would be wrong. Just about every one of them has at least a working prototype somewhere. While most are not ready for prime time -- and no one has certainly managed to put them all together, you just know it's coming. I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to my implants -- soon after they try it on the other guy first.

(The Forrester paper is available only for purchase or subscribers to the Forrester service -- which I happen to be a part of. Many thanks to DM for forwarding me this latest from Forrester.)