[Gaborn]

One of the hot topics in computer science is the study of unconventional forms of computation. This is motivated by two lines of thought. The first is theoretical--ordinary computers are hugely energy inefficient--some eight orders of magnitude worse than is theoretically possible. The second is practical--Nature has evolved many much more efficient forms of computation for specific tasks such as pattern recognition. Clearly, we ought to be able to do much better--hence the interest in different ways of doing things. Various groups have tried computing with exotic substances such as chemicals like hot ice and even with a single celled organism called a slime mould. Today, we look at one of the more curious variations on this theme--a computer that exploits the swarming behaviour of soldier crabs. First, a little background on the theory behind this idea. Back in the early 80s, a couple of computer scientists--Ed Fredkin and Tommaso Toffoli--studied how it might be possible to build a computer out of billiard balls. The idea is that a channel would carry information encoded in the form of the presence or absence of billiard balls . This information is processed through gates in which the billiard balls either collide and emerge in a direction that is the result of the ballistics of the collision, or don;t collide and emerge with the same velocities. Now Yukio-Pegio Gunji from Kobe University in Japan and a couple of pals have built what is essentially billiard ball computer using soldier crabs. "We demonstrate that swarms of soldier crabs can implement logical gates when placed in a geometrically constrained environment," they say. These creatures seem to be uniquely suited for this form of information processing . They live under the sand in tidal lagoons and emerge at low tide in swarms of hundreds of thousands. What's interesting about the crabs is that they appear to demonstrate two distinct forms of behaviour. When in the middle of a swarm, they simply follow whoever is nearby. But when they find themselves on on the edge of a swarm, they change. Suddenly, they become aggressive leaders and charge off into the watery distance with their swarm in tow, until by some accident of turbulence they find themselves inside the swarm again. This turns out to be hugely robust behaviour that can be easily controlled. When placed next to a wall, a leader will always follow the wall in a direction that can be controlled by shadowing the swarm from above to mimic to the presence of the predatory birds that eat the crabs. Under these conditions, a swarm of crabs will follow a wall like a rolling billiard ball. So what happens when two "crab balls" collide? According to Gunji and co's experiments, the balls merge and continue in a direction that is the sum of their velocities. What's more, the behaviour is remarkably robust to noise, largely because the crab's individuals behaviours generates noise that is indistinguishable from external noise. These creatures have evolved to cope with noise. That immediately suggested a potential application in computing, say Gunji and co. If the balls of crabs behave like billiard balls, it should be straightforward to build a pattern of channels that act like a logic gate. And that's exactly what Gunji and co have done. These guys first simulated the behaviour of a soldier crab computer in special patterns of channels. Then they built one in their lab to test the idea with real crabs. To be fair, the results were mixed. While Gunji and co found they could build a decent OR gate using soldier crabs, their AND-gate was much less reliable. However, it's early days and they say it may be possible to produce better results by making conditions inside the computer more crab-friendly. (No crabs were harmed in the making of their computer, say Gunji and co.) So there you have it--a computer in which the information carriers are swarming balls of soldier crabs. Not a sentence you expect to read every day. But it surely cannot be long before we all have one of these on our desktops. Ref: http://arxiv.org/abs/1204.1749: Robust Soldier Crab Ball Gate

Story Here

[Sealda]

Oh i understand fully.

[weekend_warrior]

Confirmed top power the WiiU.

[Gaborn]

Oh i understand fully.

Think of a computer as really a series of yes/no questions, but modern computers are really MILLIONS and MILLIONS of yes/no questions. What this is saying is that crab behavior can be used to mimic a simple computer so far with an or gate. That is, yes/no is very easy. you just close the gates that are not applicable to the specific information the computer is dealing with. An OR gate is saying that either of a given answer is correct with the given information. They're having a problem with the AND gate, that is, getting the crabs to go through BOTH gates because BOTH answers need to be given to be correct. Both conditions are "true and connected" you might say.

That really is all a computer does. In simple terms, it's all about 1 and 0.

[Magni]

That's a really cool article, I had no idea about this:

ordinary computers are hugely energy inefficient--some eight orders of magnitude worse than is theoretically possible

[Chichikov]

That is fucking amazing.

[Baconsaurus Rex]

But can it run Crysis?

[IceCold]

Fuck quantum computers. Crab powered computers is the future!

[King Of Fuh]

That's a really cool article, I had no idea about this:

I remember hearing a story on the radio - it was a long time ago, so don't quote me on the numbers - but it talked about the law of computer power doubling every few years, and that the same law applied to energy efficiency.

Anyway, they ended up saying that if a laptop with the specs of today were to have the efficiency of a laptop from around 1990 (again, don't quote me), its battery would last something like 17 seconds.

[PdotMichael]

The perfect computer for the third world.

If you don't need your computer anymore, eat it!

[Santerestil]

The perfect computer for the third world. If you don't need your computer anymore, eat it!

*CitizenKaneSlowApplause.gif*

[Raistlin]

So who will be the first to simulate this in minecraft?

[The Technomancer]

Have they given it a name? If not, I nominate Hex

[WedgeX]

So who will be the first to simulate this in minecraft?

A mob computer?!

Gosh that computer built inside of minecraft was crazy enough.

[The Technomancer]

But can it run Crysis?

Very very slowly.

[Log4Girlz]

Is it faster than a Crayfish supercomputer?

[xbhaskarx]

Is it faster than a Crayfish supercomputer?

lol

[Raistlin]

Is it faster than a Crayfish supercomputer?

nerd


i lol'd

[Boss Doggie]

We need crustacean-themed OS and hardware.

[zoku88]

That's a really cool article, I had no idea about this:

It's probably because of error correction, though. (and leakage) Error checking requires you to use more data encoding the same amount of information.

It's possible to build a computer with low leakage and very low energy loss, but it wouldn't work well.

Is it faster than a Crayfish supercomputer?

:clap

[Thagomizer]

"...A computer, you say?"

[akira28]

So when do we get an explanation for '42'?

[RoboPlato]

Is it faster than a Crayfish supercomputer?

Incredible

[The Technomancer]

So when do we get an explanation for '42'?

W-H-A-T D-O-Y-O oh damn this isn't working at all U-G-E-T "do you get!" I-F-Y-O-U-M-U-L-T-I-P-L-Y S-I-X B-Y S-E-V-E-N....oh

[Reversed]

In a networking context, this sounds hella interesting.

[cooljeanius]

We need crustacean-themed OS and hardware.

There's some software called ClamAv... Clams might not be crustaceans, but that was the closest thing I could think of...

[viciouskillersquirrel]

Anthill Inside™

[The Technomancer]

Anthill Inside™

I already made that joke! Kinda!

[viciouskillersquirrel]

I already made that joke! Kinda!

++ OUT OF CHEESE ERROR ++

[Gaborn]

I just want to say that I LOVE that this thread turned into a Discworld parody

[iirate]

Threads like these really make me feel stupid - I still don't "get" computers.

[ZiZ]

++ OUT OF CHEESE ERROR ++

+++ Divide By Cucumber Error. Please Reinstall Universe And Reboot +++

[mac]

Have they solved the butter matrix issues?

[ItAintEasyBeinCheesy]

Next Playstation, kill Giant Enemy Crabs on your crab powered console.

[Uncle]

Anthill Inside™

[Jintor]

This is great news for all our computing-deprived crustacean brethren.

[Kukuk]

A computer from the deep blue?

[Lindbergh]

We have an AI professor that showed us something similar with cellular automata from the Game of Life being used to build computers. It was to demonstrate emergent design where complex systems can develop from simple rules.

Some folks actually simulated a Turing machine from such things.

[fallagin]

Is it faster than a Crayfish supercomputer?

I don't get it. :(

[Az987]

I would like to buy this crab computer.

[Nerfgun]

16 megacrabs ought to be enough for anybody

[Lactose_Intolerant]

I don't get it. :(

Cray supercomputer

[Gaborn]

I don't get it. :(

They're refencing Cray a company known for making supercomputers.

edit: beaten.

[Log4Girlz]

I can't wait to run steam on this.