Biological Computers

[LordAza]

Everyone heard about it. From the deep recesses of your mind its been tugging and bothering you. Living computers? It is possible. we ourselves are walking computers. The chemicals in our brain store our memories and expeirences. Which brings me a question. If memories are chemically based, then could it be possible to re-create your memories in someone else.

[Neurocomp2003]

chemicals in our brain store our memories and experiences? what reference do you have for this? and by chemicals you mean neurotransmitters or other chemicals?

BUt yes small bio computers are possible ...i did a hs paper on the dna computer like 7 years ago but its slow as f***.

and as for your statemens "we ourselves are walking computers" though i am a firm believer that we are its still up for debate.

[LordAza]

Well i've found a few good links which have tested theories that certain chemicals help keep memories in Alzheimer's patients.


Chemical memory link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3431431.stm)

Also there has been a few expeirments done on the subject. This document goes into much greater detail on how they expeirmented with certain animals using brain transferred and brain fluid extraction to cause similar behavioral types.

Study in chemical memory tranfer (http://www.indiana.edu/~pietsch/memory-transfer.html)

Just a few tidbits but i am sure there is much more on the subject

I read a paper on DNA computers which said something about the amount of bio mass required for a worthwhile machine is unfeasible (The travelling salesman for example), also although the dna is easy to get hold of, the used to splice it is expensive.

[cookiedude]

So an imbalance of acetylcholine in the brain may be the cause of Alzheimer's Disease? That would make sense, considering even people without Alzheimer's appear to have better memories than others. Nobody's brain is exactly the same.

Getting back to the topic of bio computers, if it was possible to somehow combine the vast comprehension and memory of the brain and the incredible speed and acuracy of a computer, what do you think the results would be like?

[Avatar]

what do you think the results would be like?

http://members.chello.be/ws36028/microsoft/borg.jpg

[Mr. Chips]

LOL

If I understand correctly the human brain appears to use computational algorithms for holographic storage. So it may not actually be the chemicals there where memory resides but between them and in their relationships with each other, basically reproducible interference patterns that take on meaning only in a distributed and contextual manner..

[Qean]

I think yeah maybe we are organic computers,maybe we have artificial intelligence of a different kind,different to what we would consider as computer technology, maybe our intelligence is a creation of an alien technology which is hugely different to our own,maybe the science of biology is the study of an alien technology,Who knows? :confused:

[spidergoat]

I think computers will one day resemble biology, but will they be alive? I don't know. DNA is a great molecule for assembling nanomachines, they are already using DNA to construct a grid-like matrix, since the double helix is not the only possible struture- it can be formed into crystals. DNA could be the key to self-replicating machines.

[kmguru]

If I understand correctly the human brain appears to use computational algorithms for holographic storage.

I am not sure if it is holographic or fractal pattern generator. I used to think in 1980, along with a neurosugeon friend that brain stores memory in a holographic pattern. But after working on fractal pattern to store massive data in a database, I think there is more going on than meets the eye. Brains ability to writeback information from whatif scenarios is much better than what we normally do in commercial programming.

The point is, there could be ideas and theories not yet discovered about our brain. It could be like the old patch cord PBX days when psychologists thought that brain works like a telephone switchboard....

Hundred years from now, we still might be wrestling with the new theory. Perhaps, that is why, even in StarTrek technology, they did not have an AI that is better than a Human or Vulcan. :confused: