Advances In Unconventional Computing

The unconventional computing is a niche for interdisciplinary science, cross-bred of computer science, physics, mathematics, chemistry, electronic engineering, biology, material science and nanotechnology. The aims of this book are to uncover and exploit principles and mechanisms of information processing in and functional properties of physical, chemical and living systems to develop efficient algorithms, design optimal architectures and manufacture working prototypes of future and emergent computing devices. This first volume presents theoretical foundations of the future and emergent computing paradigms and architectures. The topics covered are computability, (non-)universality and complexity of computation; physics of computation, analog and quantum computing; reversible and asynchronous devices; cellular automata and other mathematical machines; P-systems and cellular computing; infinity and spatial computation; chemical and reservoir computing. The book is the encyclopedia, the first ever complete authoritative account, of the theoretical and experimental findings in the unconventional computing written by the world leaders in the field. All chapters are self-contains, no specialist background is required to appreciate ideas, findings, constructs and designs presented. This treatise in unconventional computing appeals to readers from all walks of life, from high-school pupils to university professors, from mathematicians, computers scientists and engineers to chemists and biologists.

The unconventional computing is a niche for interdisciplinary science, cross-bred of computer science, physics, mathematics, chemistry, electronic engineering, biology, material science and nanotechnology. The aims of this book are to uncover and exploit principles and mechanisms of information processing in and functional properties of physical, chemical and living systems to develop efficient algorithms, design optimal architectures and manufacture working prototypes of future and emergent computing devices. This second volume presents experimental laboratory prototypes and applied computing implementations. Emergent molecular computing is presented by enzymatic logical gates and circuits, and DNA nano-devices. Reaction-diffusion chemical computing is exemplified by logical circuits in Belousov-Zhabotinsky medium and geometrical computation in precipitating chemical reactions. Logical circuits realised with solitons and impulses in polymer chains show advances in collision-based computing. Photo-chemical and memristive devices give us a glimpse on hot topics of a novel hardware. Practical computing is represented by algorithms of collective and immune-computing and nature-inspired optimisation. Living computing devices are implemented in real and simulated cells, regenerating organisms, plant roots and slime mould. The book is the encyclopedia, the first ever complete authoritative account, of the theoretical and experimental findings in the unconventional computing written by the world leaders in the field. All chapters are self-contains, no specialist background is required to appreciate ideas, findings, constructs and designs presented. This treatise in unconventional computing appeals to readers from all walks of life, from high-school pupils to university professors, from mathematicians, computers scientists and engineers to chemists and biologists.

Unconventional computing is a field of advanced computer science, which general goal might be summarised as the quest for both new groundbreaking algorithms and physical implementations of novel and ultimately more powerful - compared to classical approaches - computing paradigms and machines. This volume brings together work that especially focuses on experimental prototypes and genuine implementations of non-classical computing devices. A further goal was to revisit existing approaches in unconventional computing, to provide scientists and engineers with blue-prints of realisable computing devices, and to take a critical glance at the design of novel and emergent computing systems to point out failures and shortcomings of both theoretical and experimental approaches.

This book is devoted to Slime mould Physarum polycephalum, which is a large single cell capable for distributed sensing, concurrent information processing, parallel computation and decentralized actuation. The ease of culturing and experimenting with Physarum makes this slime mould an ideal substrate for real-world implementations of unconventional sensing and computing devices The book is a treatise of theoretical and experimental laboratory studies on sensing and computing properties of slime mould, and on the development of mathematical and logical theories of Physarum behavior. It is shown how to make logical gates and circuits, electronic devices (memristors, diodes, transistors, wires, chemical and tactile sensors) with the slime mould. The book demonstrates how to modify properties of Physarum computing circuits with functional nano-particles and polymers, to interface the slime mould with field-programmable arrays, and to use Physarum as a controller of microbial fuel cells. A unique multi-agent model of slime is shown to serve well as a software slime mould capable for solving problems of computational geometry and graph optimization. The multiagent model is complemented by cellular automata models with parallel accelerations. Presented mathematical models inspired by Physarum include non-quantum implementation of Shor's factorization, structural learning, computation of shortest path tree on dynamic graphs, supply chain network design, p-adic computing and syllogistic reasoning. The book is a unique composition of vibrant and lavishly illustrated essays which will inspire scientists, engineers and artists to exploit natural phenomena in designs of future and emergent computing and sensing devices. It is a 'bible' of experimental computing with spatially extended living substrates, it spanstopics from biology of slime mould, to bio-sensing, to unconventional computing devices and robotics, non-classical logics and music and arts.

Did you know that computation can be implemented with cytoskeleton networks, chemical reactions, liquid marbles, plants, polymers and dozens of other living and inanimate substrates? Do you know what is reversible computing or a DNA microscopy? Are you aware that randomness aids computation? Would you like to make logical circuits from enzymatic reactions? Have you ever tried to implement digital logic with Minecraft? Do you know that eroding sandstones can compute too?This volume reviews most of the key attempts in coming up with an alternative way of computation. In doing so, the authors show that we do not need computers to compute and we do not need computation to infer. It invites readers to rethink the computer and computing, and appeals to computer scientists, mathematicians, physicists and philosophers. The topics are presented in a lively and easily accessible manner and make for ideal supplementary reading across a broad range of subjects.

Unconventional computing is the quest for groundbreaking new algorithms and computing architectures based on and inspired by the principles of information processing in physical, chemical and biological systems. The timely scientific contributions in this book include cutting-edge theoretical work on quantum and kinematic Turing machines, computational complexity of physical systems, molecular and chemical computation, processing incomplete information, physical hypercomputation, automata networks and swarms. They are nicely complemented by recent results on experimental implementations of logical and arithmetical circuits in a domino substrate, DNA computers, and self-assembly. The book supports interdisciplinary research in the field of future computing and contributes toward developing a common interface between computer science, biology, mathematics, chemistry, electronics engineering, and physics.

This pioneering text/reference explores how innovative new modes of computation may provide exciting new directions for future developments in the music industry, guiding the reader through the latest research in this emerging, interdisciplinary field. This work includes coverage of electronic music compositions and performances that incorporate unconventional interfacing, hacking and circuit bending. Features: presents an introduction to unconventional computing in music; discusses initiatives involving biophysical electronic music, the work of self-styled silicon luthiers, and the intersection of music and quantum computing; introduces the memristor, a new electronic component with the potential to revolutionize how computers are built; reviews experiments and practical applications of biological memristors in music; describes IMUSIC, an unconventional tone-based programming language, which enables the programming of computers using musical phrases; includes review questions at the end of each chapter.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Unconventional Computation and Natural Computation, UCNC 2019, held in Tokyo, Japan, in June 2019. The 19 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 32 submissions. The papers cover topics such as hypercomputation; chaos and dynamical systems based computing; granular, fuzzy and rough computing; mechanical computing; cellular, evolutionary, molecular, neural, and quantum computing; membrane computing; amorphous computing, swarm intelligence; artificial immune systems; physics of computation; chemical computation; evolving hardware; the computational nature of self-assembly, developmental processes, bacterial communication, and brain processes.