Science Fiction
Dictionary Latest By
"did I had an extremely expensive wife - she would see a new car that she liked and just buy it... under California law I was bound to buy her debts. I think I turned out 16 novels in five years."
|
Vergil Ullam was an unrecognized and unrewarded genius who spent a lot more of his time in the lab working on his pet projects than on his nominal work assignments. Fascinated by the potential of biological computing, he decided to give his own cells a boost up the evolutionary ladder. Eventually, they talked with each other, forming tiny communities that stretched across his body.
If you are interested in this area, take a look at a fascinating 1996 talk by Seymour Cray, who
created the first supercomputer. Here is a short excerpt from his talk, given at the Shannon
Institute for Advanced Studies.
Let's look first at the big DRAM memory. Well, it's packaged in 48 bags. These are called
chromosomes. Now, as we look at those we are a little puzzled because there are some little
ones and some big ones and some middle-sized ones, and how did that happen?
Well, when you think about it, this computing facility started with a very small memory, and
it's been upgraded a number of times, and you know when you go to the store you'd like to get
the biggest DRAM parts, but you have to go with what's available. And that's what happened with
the biological system. It had to go with what was available at the time it was upgraded.
If we look further into the big DRAM memory, we see that probably the packaging isn't
important. Forty-eight banks probably aren't significant. We can view the whole memory as one
string of bits, a one-dimensional memory. And biologists, I think, agree with that today. And
so how big is it? Well, it's six gigabytes."
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
resources: Intellectual Cell-related
news articles:
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
Brin's 1990 Novel Earth Still Full Of Predictions
'... making the point that their likenesses, every move they made, were being transmitted.'
Gaia - Why Stop With Just The Earth?
'But the stars are only atoms in larger space, and in that larger space the star-atoms could combine to form living matter, thinking matter, couldn't they?'
Microsoft VASA-1 Creates Personal Video From A Photo
'...to build up a video picture would require, say, ten million decisions every second. Mike, you're so fast I can't even think about it. But you aren't that fast.'
Splendid View Of Eclipse From Orbit Visualized And Repurposed By Arthur C. Clarke
'The area affected was five hundred kilometres across, and perfectly circular.'
Goldene - A Two-Dimensional Sheet Of Gold One Atom Thick
'Hasan always pitched a Gauzy - a one-molecule-layer tent, opaque, feather-light, and very tough.'
SpaceX Wants A Moonbase Alpha
'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
Vast Apartment Living Will Get Even More Vast
'What is your population', I asked. 'About eighty millions.'
NASA Wants Self-Driving Or Remote-Controlled Vehicles For Lunar Astronauts
'THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold...'
|
Home | Glossary
| Science Fiction Timeline | Category | New | Contact
Us | FAQ | Advertise | Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™ Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved. |
||