Will computers of the future be assembled in factories the same way they are now, or will they literally be grown in laboratories like cell cultures? A team of biologists and computer engineers at Lehigh University (Pennsylvania, USA) became so interested in this issue that they even managed to get a grant of $ 500,000 from the National Science Foundation. Scientists want to develop a computer made of living cells and program it to perform computational processes.
Details of the upcoming project are still very scarce. The grant recipients say they intend to use living cells (although scientists are not yet talking about which type of cells) to create a living neural network. For these purposes, scientists will resort to optogenetics, a technique for controlling cells by exposing them to light, and will train cells to recognize the digital values necessary to perform calculations.
According to the researchers, their project will help "better understand the possibility of symbiosis between the computer and organic brain." How exactly all this will work, at the moment, no one even knows.
When scientists from the University of Pennsylvania in May presented globules (organelles) of the human brain grown in a laboratory environment, controversy erupted in the scientific community over the ethics of such developments. According to some, such "mini-brains", with their development, can acquire consciousness. It is not yet clear whether the new study by scientists from Lehigh University will take this aspect into account.
In any case, the new project offers a radically new perspective on the future of computer technology, in which literally all electronics can be grown from "seeds" like flowers.
Promotional video:
Nikolay Khizhnyak