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A future biocomputer?
“Mankind is a catalyzing enzyme for the transition from a carbon-based to a silicon-based intelligence.”—Gerard Bricogne
Carbon and silicon sit in the same column in the periodic table—being both tetravalent and non-metallic they form covalent chemical bonds easily. It is this chemical faculty that makes carbon the fundamental bedrock of all life on Earth, and silicon the same for all computer systems.
Many sci-fi tropes revolve around this similarity, with stories that involve the merging of carbon-based life-forms with silicon-based ones. The metaphors in this book have illustrated many conceptual similarities between biology and the cyber domain, but there are a growing number of examples where these two realms are actually fusing together in practice.
The first stems from practical limitations in how much smaller silicon chips can shrink. The number of transistors that can be packed into integrated circuits doubles every two years, according to Moore’s Law. But as we approach the nano scale, quantum effects are beginning to intrude and heat dissipation is a very significant problem.
Till Korten at the Dresden University of Technology18 has built a biocomputer that uses 10,000 times less energy than a silicon one. An etched glass chip is flooded with a type of biological motor protein called kinesins, along with some microtubules that provide the inner scaffolding of cells. This biocomputer can solve multivariate optimization problems 128 times faster than previously, although it may take many years to commercialize. Maybe it’s no surprise that these biocomponents, honed by a billion years of evolution, are so efficient.
A second example of fusion is the use of biological DNA for encryption.
The DNA molecule already performs a biological encryption function, encoding genetic information using sequences of four different base pairs. Scientists at Sheffield University19 have explored using the chemical properties of DNA to generate improved encryption keys.
The security of all crypto schemes lies in key management, rather than the secrecy of the algorithm. This DNA-based approach focuses on producing a more complex key rather than a more complicated algorithm. The scheme involves a series of conversions of binary data into DNA and then RNA, followed by the addition of certain amino acids to increase the complexity of the substitutions. The result is an extended encryption key that is virtually unbreakable.
On a more prosaic level, the use of biological information for security purposes is already with us. Most multi-factor authentication schemes use some type of biometric data, such as fingerprints or face recognition, to confirm the identity of the user.
The importance of this biometric data and the commensurate increase in the risks of identity theft is well recognized already. Biometrics fall into the category of protected health information (PHI) and therefore already fall under the HIPAA and BIPA privacy regulations in the USA.
Research into biocomputers is, so far, unregulated, with only the imaginings of sci-fi authors to warn of its future dangers. Maybe these dangers are not so far into the future. In July 2022, Google fired an employee called Blake Lemoine who claimed his AI computer had become sentient. Who knows what tomorrow might bring…
