Biocomputers: The Future of Computing

There is a ceiling in computing and artificial intelligence. For professor Thomas Hartung, we are getting closer to approaching that ceiling. But this doesn't mean we will stop trying to improve the efficiency of our computers. The better course of action is to try to overcome the limit, or in this case, shoot past the said ceiling. Hartung hypothesizes that the key to overcoming the current technological limits is biocomputing — computers with biological components.

A $600-million supercomputer in Kentucky has recently been able to exceed the computational capacity of a single human brain for the first time. However, as Hartung states, it did so "using a million times more energy."

In Hartung's laboratory at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Whiting School of Engineering, Hartung and his team are busy studying the brain cells (which Hartung himself grew and assembled using reprogrammed cells from human skin samples).

As supercomputers are gradually becoming unsustainable, computers powered by lab-grown brain organoids could be a favorable replacement, as they are energy-efficient. Hartung, however, thinks that creating organoid intelligence capable of powering systems that are at least as smart as a mouse could take decades.

But organoid intelligence is not only limited to the field of computers, states Johns Hopkins assistant professor Lena Smirnova; it could also be of use for neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodegeneration research.

(Image Credit: Jesse Plotkin/ Johns Hopkins University)