How does a neurochemical computer work?
Scientists explain that the principle of operation of the device is similar
Futurologists always scare their readers with the growingthe power of artificial intelligence (AI), which is based on conventional computer systems. However, AI can be organized in different ways. For several years, employees of the Center for Nonlinear Chemistry of the Baltic Federal University. Immanuel Kant tried to create a computer based on the principle of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky chemical reaction. Last year, IKBFU researchers proposed a mathematical model of the operation of a neurochemical computer, which is based on a looped chemical reaction. The results of the research by Professor Vladimir Vanag and two graduate students Pavel Smelov and Ivan Proskurin were published in one of the most famous scientific journals, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.
As the scientists explained, in the process of creationcomputer, the system worked like a small child repeating the actions of the mother. Yes, this behavior still cannot be called meaningful, but this is an example of adaptation to the environment.
How a neurochemical computer worksbased on the interaction of oscillating elements. In this case, their role is played by different chemicals, but in microscopic quantities - sulfuric and malonic acids, bromates and catalysts. These elements vibrate due to the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction. During such a reaction, its parameters - for example, color or temperature - periodically change. The simplest example of such a reaction is a change in color. The solution may change from colorless to yellow, and then return to its original colorless state.
What is the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction?
In 1951, Soviet chemist Boris Belousov,trying to simulate a metabolic process in laboratory conditions, I discovered something amazing. The solution in which the reaction took place periodically changed its color from colorless to yellow and back. That is, having reached the end, the process began anew. Many scientists considered such a process to be impossible in principle. However, later the biophysicist Anatoly Zhabotinsky reproduced Belousov's experiments and gave an explanation for periodic fluctuations in the solution. Thus, the foundations of nonlinear chemistry were laid.
Advantage and future development
Created today, the first first in the worldThe neurochemical computer has at least one strong advantage over other AI systems. “Such artificial intelligence will be more understandable and closer to humans,” says scientist Vladimir Vanag. The principle of its operation is surprisingly similar to the functioning of the human brain.
In the photo: Vladimir Vanag Photo: IKBFU I. Kant
Professor Vladimir Vanag is also sure thatconventional and neurochemical computers will develop in parallel. Of course, in the future it will be possible to combine both devices into one cybernetic organism. In addition, neurochemical computers are very small, so they can be easily implanted into the body or even taken in pill form. However, so far all these predictions look like fantasy.
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