Wetware computer
A wetware computer is an organic computer (which can also be known as an artificial organic brain or a neurocomputer) composed of organic material "wetware" such as "living" neurons.
Overview
The concept of wetware is an application of specific interest to the field of computer manufacturing. Moore's law, which states that the number of transistors which can be placed on a silicon chip is doubled roughly every two years, has acted as a goal for the industry for decades, but as the size of computers continues to decrease, the ability to meet this goal has become more difficult, threatening to reach a plateau.
Background
The concept of wetware is distinct and unconventional and draws slight resonance with both hardware and software from conventional computers. While hardware is understood as the physical architecture of traditional computational devices, built from electrical circuitry and silicone plates, software represents the encoded architecture of storage and instructions. Wetware is a separate concept that uses the formation of organic molecules, mostly complex cellular structures (such as neurons), to create a computational device such as a computer. In wetware, the ideas of hardware and software are intertwined and interdependent. The molecular and chemical composition of the organic or biological structure would represent not only the physical structure of the wetware but also the software, being continually reprogrammed by the discrete shifts in electrical pulses and chemical concentration gradients as the molecules change their structures to communicate signals. The responsiveness of a cell, proteins, and molecules to changing conformations, both within their structures and around them, ties the idea of internal programming and external structure together in a way that is alien to the current model of conventional computer architecture.
The structure of wetware represents a model where the external structure and internal programming are interdependent and unified; meaning that changes to the programming or internal communication between molecules of the device would represent a physical change in the structure. The dynamic nature of wetware borrows from the function of complex cellular structures in biological organisms. The combination of “hardware” and “software” into one dynamic, and interdependent system which uses organic molecules and complexes to create an unconventional model for computational devices is a specific example of applied biorobotics.
The cell as a model of wetware
Cells in many ways can be seen as their form of naturally occurring wetware, similar to the concept that the human brain is the preexisting model system for complex wetware. In his book Wetware: A Computer in Every Living Cell (2009) Dennis Bray explains his theory that cells, which are the most basic form of life, are just a highly complex computational structure, like a computer. To simplify one of his arguments a cell can be seen as a type of computer, using its structured architecture. In this architecture, much like a traditional computer, many smaller components operate in tandem to receive input, process the information, and compute an output. In an overly simplified, non-technical analysis, cellular function can be broken into the following components: Information and instructions for execution are stored as DNA in the cell, RNA acts as a source for distinctly encoded input, processed by ribosomes and other transcription factors to access and process the DNA and to output a protein. Bray's argument in favor of viewing cells and cellular structures as models of natural computational devices is important when considering the more applied theories of wetware to biorobotics.
Biorobotics
Wetware and biorobotics are closely related concepts, which both borrow from similar overall principles. A biorobotic structure can be defined as a system modeled from a preexisting organic complex or model such as cells (neurons) or more complex structures like organs (brain) or whole organisms.
Applications and goals
Basic neurocomputer composed of leech neurons
In 1999 William Ditto and his team of researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University created a basic form of a wetware computer capable of simple addition by harnessing leech neurons.
Biological models for conventional computing
After his work creating a basic computer from leech neurons, Ditto continued to work not only with organic molecules and wetware but also on the concept of applying the chaotic nature of biological systems and organic molecules to conventional material and logic gates. Chaotic systems have advantages for generating patterns and computing higher-order functions like memory, arithmetic logic, and input/output operations.
Impact of wetware in cognitive biology
Cognitive biology evaluates cognition as a basic biological function. W. Tecumseh Fitch, a professor of cognitive biology at the University of Vienna, is a leading theorist on ideas of cellular intentionality. The idea is that not only do whole organisms have a sense of "aboutness" of intentionality, but that single cells also carry a sense of intentionality through cells' ability to adapt and reorganize in response to certain stimuli.
In a review of the above-mentioned research conducted by Fitch, Daniel Dennett, a professor at Tufts University, discusses the importance of the distinction between the concept of hardware and software when evaluating the idea of wetware and organic material such as neurons. Dennett discusses the value of observing the human brain as a preexisting example of wetware. He sees the brain as having "the competence of a silicon computer to take on an unlimited variety of temporary cognitive roles."
Medical applications
Brain-on-a-chip devices have been developed that are "aimed at testing and predicting the effects of biological and chemical agents, disease or pharmaceutical drugs on the brain over time".
Ethical and philosophical implications
Wetware computers may have substantial ethical implications,
Moreover, in some cases the human brain itself may be connected as a kind of "wetware" to other information technology systems which may also have large social and ethical implications,
The concept of artificial insects
It is an open question whether human cerebral organoids could develop a degree or form of consciousness. Whether or how it could acquire its moral status with related rights and limits
Future applications
While there have been few major developments in the creation of an organic computer since the neuron-based calculator developed by Ditto in the 1990s, research continues to push the field forward, and in 2023 a functioning computer was constructed by researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign using 80,000 mouse neurons as processor that can detect light and electrical signals.
In a proposed fungal computer using basidiomycetes, information is represented by spikes of electrical activity, a computation is implemented in a mycelium network, and an interface is realized via fruit bodies.
Connecting cerebral organoids (including computer-like wetware) with other nerve tissues may become feasible in the future,