Synaptic Computers
In the recent weeks following my brother's death, I've had some pretty strange dreams, as one would expect, as well as some half-waking notions.
The day following his death, I dreamed he returned home, looking as he did back in the early '70s, from Australia, wearing Armani sunglasses. I don't even know if Armani makes sunglasses, but it didn't stop me from looking through every mall kiosk I came across subsequently, to see if I could spot a pair like the ones he was wearing. In fact, having once had the idea to look for them, it almost becomes habitual, because the right combination of stimulus and response has been established.
Not long after that dream, I had a notion, half in that dream-state just before you wake up, of a new technology involving electronic circuits capable of operating like biological synapses, from which synaptic computers could be built, which would, like Commander Data's positronic brain, be capable of learning and remembering new connections.
Those who know me will know that I have often said I'm slightly ahead of my time - by about two weeks. This means, I think, I might be sensitive to the zeitgeist, because those great insights that I have, have actually been floating around for some time in some fashion before they seep into my consciousness without having had any direct exposure to the idea; they are ideas of their time. The same is true in this case, too.
In an interesting article on the synapse chip in March, 2010, the memristor is described. The memristor is that missing electronics link between electronics and neural-like computing - a device which functions analogously to a biological synapse. The more times a signal traverses a given path, the better that path is "remembered", so is more likely to be traversed on the next event.
At least as important as quantum computing, I think, memristors promise to be the single-most important breakthrough in electronics since the solid-state transistor. It might be a decade before anything practical is developed out of the memristor, but it is likely going to be the foundation of the real-world realization of science fiction ideas at least as old as Asimov's "I Robot", or Star Trek's "duotronics", or "positronic brains".
The day following his death, I dreamed he returned home, looking as he did back in the early '70s, from Australia, wearing Armani sunglasses. I don't even know if Armani makes sunglasses, but it didn't stop me from looking through every mall kiosk I came across subsequently, to see if I could spot a pair like the ones he was wearing. In fact, having once had the idea to look for them, it almost becomes habitual, because the right combination of stimulus and response has been established.
Not long after that dream, I had a notion, half in that dream-state just before you wake up, of a new technology involving electronic circuits capable of operating like biological synapses, from which synaptic computers could be built, which would, like Commander Data's positronic brain, be capable of learning and remembering new connections.
Those who know me will know that I have often said I'm slightly ahead of my time - by about two weeks. This means, I think, I might be sensitive to the zeitgeist, because those great insights that I have, have actually been floating around for some time in some fashion before they seep into my consciousness without having had any direct exposure to the idea; they are ideas of their time. The same is true in this case, too.
In an interesting article on the synapse chip in March, 2010, the memristor is described. The memristor is that missing electronics link between electronics and neural-like computing - a device which functions analogously to a biological synapse. The more times a signal traverses a given path, the better that path is "remembered", so is more likely to be traversed on the next event.
At least as important as quantum computing, I think, memristors promise to be the single-most important breakthrough in electronics since the solid-state transistor. It might be a decade before anything practical is developed out of the memristor, but it is likely going to be the foundation of the real-world realization of science fiction ideas at least as old as Asimov's "I Robot", or Star Trek's "duotronics", or "positronic brains".
Comments
Post a Comment