h a l f b a k e r yExperiencing technical difficulties since 1999
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A monstrous machine that replaces the lightning-fast movements of electrons with the snail-pace growth of mushrooms to make computations.
Instead of logic gates, we have "fungus gates": a grid-like pattern of cells, each lined with damp soil that mushrooms like to grow on. Each cell has a lid. As
mushrooms in a cell increase in size, they lift the lid, allowing their spores to transfer into surrounding cells. A chain reaction is produced (over the period of a couple of days), and, depending on the arrangement of cells in the grid, computations can be made. Occupied cells become "yes", sporeless cells "no"; certain configurations for "and, not, else, if, then etc"...
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Well, think about this: humongously slowly functioning fungal computers sooner or later developed the modern high powered computing machine we call a dolphin. (Or were fungi the other branch on the tree of life?) |
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When the calculation is done, can your harvest the mushrooms and eat them? |
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It's a bird ... no, it's a plane ... no, wait! It's a ... screensaver. |
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//When the calculation is done, can your harvest the mushrooms and eat them?// This is sensitive, expensive equipment, sir, I spent hard-earned money for this Penti-yum... i feel bad for having made such a pun |
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No it doesn't. The fungi act on each other by one mushroom's growth causing growth of mushrooms elsewhere. That's a form of computation. I have no idea whether it would really work with mushrooms and boxes, but the principle is really quite clever. |
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(In a way, you could see it as turning the idea of simulating real-world organic growth with cellular automata upside down to simulate a simple automaton using real-world organic growth.) |
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Kids... come here... we're going to build your science fair project... |
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Johnny, grab that 50 pound bag of manure would you? |
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[jutta], I'm confused about the sunlight part you're talking about. It's not mentioned by the author. Are you thinking of another method? |
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It occurs to me that in the time it would take to boot up DOS with one of these, whole species of animals and plants could evolve and become extinct. |
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I'm not sure they'd still be mushrooms by the time you're done booting up. |
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[zigness], good call, I had completely misread the method. Must have been late! |
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So, how do you do a "NOT" in this? |
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Even I dunno. Introduce fungus-eating mites. |
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This computer would be great for Conway's (sp?) Game of Life. |
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