As computers and the tasks they perform become increasingly complex,                  researchers are looking to nature -- as model and as metaphor -- for inspiration.                  The organization and behavior of biological organisms present scientists with an                  invitation to reinvent computing for the complex tasks of the future. In Imitation                  of Life, Nancy Forbes surveys the emerging field of biologically inspired computing,                  looking at some of the most impressive and influential examples of this fertile                  synergy.Forbes points out that the influence of biology on computing goes back to                  the early days of computer science -- John von Neumann, the architect of the first                  digital computer, used the human brain as the model for his design. Inspired by von                  Neumann and other early visionaries, as well as by her work on the "Ultrascale                  Computing" project at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Forbes                  describes the exciting potential of these revolutionary new technologies. She                  identifies three strains of biologically inspired computing: the use of biology as a                  metaphor or inspiration for the development of algorithms; the construction of                  information processing systems that use biological materials or are modeled on                  biological processes, or both; and the effort to understand how biological organisms                  "compute," or process information.Forbes then shows us how current researchers are                  using these approaches. In successive chapters, she looks at artificial neural                  networks; evolutionary and genetic algorithms, which search for the "fittest" among                  a generation of solutions; cellular automata; artificial life -- not just a                  simulation, but "alive" in the internal ecosystem of the computer; DNA computation,                  which uses the encoding capability of DNA to devise algorithms; self-assembly and                  its potential use in nanotechnology; amorphous computing, modeled on the kind of                  cooperation seen in a colony of cells or a swarm of bees; computer immune systems;                  bio-hardware and how bioelectronics compares to silicon; and the "computational"                  properties of cells.

Imitation of Life: How Biology Is Inspiring Computing PDF

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