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As computers and the tasks they perform
become increasingly complex, researchers are looking to
nature -- as model and as metaphor -- for inspiration. The
organization and behavior of biological organisms present
scientists with an invitation to reinvent computing for
the complex tasks of the future. In Imitation of Life
Nancy Forbes surveys the emerging field of biologically
inspired computing, looking at some of the most impressive
and influential examples of this fertile synergy.
Forbes points out that the influence of
biology on computing goes back to the early days of computer
science -- John von Neumann, the architect of the first
digital computer, used the human brain as the model for
his design. Inspired by von Neumann and other early visionaries,
as well as by her work on the Ultrascale Computing project
at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA),
Forbes describes the exciting potential of these revolutionary
new technologies. She identifies three strains of biologically-inspired
computing: the use of biology as a metaphor or inspiration
for the development of algorithms; the construction of information
processing systems that use biological materials or are
modeled on biological processes; and the effort to understand
how biological organisms "compute," or process
information.
Forbes then shows us how current researchers
are using these approaches. In successive chapters, she
looks at artificial neural networks; evolutionary and genetic
algorithms, which search for the "fittest" among
a generation of solutions; cellular automata; artificial
life -- not just a simulation, but "alive" in
the internal ecosystem of the computer; DNA computation,
which uses the encoding capability of DNA to devise algorithms;
self-assembly and its potential use in nanotechnology; amorphous
computing, modeled on the kind of cooperation seen in a
colony of cells or a swarm of bees; computer immune systems;
biohardware and how bio-electronics compares to silicon;
and the "computational" properties of cells.
Nancy Forbes works as a science and technology
analyst for the federal government. She has advanced degrees
both in physics and the humanities, and has served as a
contributing editor for The Industrial Physicist and
Computing in Science and Engineering.
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