Scientists in Tennessee have genetically engineered microcrobes to function like logic components in computer circuits.
Now if they can just get them to work in colonies with specialized bacteria doing different functions, then we’d be getting somewhere.
This is exciting news. The mind leaps straight towards Star Trek and Bladerunner scenarios. But realistically, what is the real import of this development? Is this comparable to the discovery of radioactivity leading relatively quickly to nuclear power and (soon) controlled fusion? Or is it more like ancient bans on pork eventually leading to the recognition of micro-organisms?
I admit that my quick comments about the histories of nuclear power and medicine are wildly inaccurate, but let me know how soon you think that we will see major applications in nanotechnology.
Hey Ralph!
Actually you’ve given some good parallels. I think we are still in the bans on pork stage. Or perhaps we are at the Robert Goddard/Obert/Tsiokovsky stage.
There are two drawbacks with this stuff. One is switching speed and the other is accuracy.
But one only has to think of the human brain, which is really just a colony of highly specialized cells with each functioning as processing, maintainence or infrastructure component, to see where this could head.
Granted a neuron is much more sophisticated than these bacterial logic gates but you gotta start somewhere.
By the way, you may want to spam-proof your e-mail address in future. I’ve taken the liberty of spam-proofing the address you’ve already posted.