Unconventional Computing 2007

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.

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.

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 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Unconventional Computation, UC 2007, held in Kingston, Canada, in August 2007. The 17 revised full papers presented together with 4 invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. All current aspects of unconventional computation are addressed - theory as well as experiments and applications. Typical topics are: natural computing including quantum, cellular, molecular, neural and evolutionary computing; chaos and dynamical systems based computing; and various proposals for computations that go beyond the Turing model.

"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 will review 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"--

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.

There is no strict definition of unconventional computing. Being an unconventional computist is not a matter of training but thinking and living. Phenomenologically most works on unconventional computing are about implementation of computing in novel substrates (chemical, physical, biological), development of computing schemes and algorithms not fitting into the mainstream framework, or designing of computing architectures inspired by chemical or biological systems. This short book gives a snapshot of the unconventional computing field. The world-leading experts in the unconventional computing author all articles of the issue. The topics include analog computation, sensing and computing with fungi, chemical computing, swarms of minimalist agents, computational universality, mega-computing in the universe, information and music, universal sensing, art of deduction, reversible computing, philosophy of machine learning, epistemic incompleteness, post-quantum unconventional computing, complexity of natural computing, arts and cellular automata. Articles presented are punchy and well illustrated. All articles are short and self-contained. The book will serve well as a light-touch introduction to unconventional computing for people not familiar with computing and might inspire artists and humanitarians to enter the field.