Japanese Researchers Create A Crab-Based Computer

mikejuk writes "You can build a computer out of all sorts of things — mechanical components, vacuum tubes, transistors, fluids and ... crabs. Researchers at Kobe University in Japan have discovered that soldier crabs have behaviors suitable for implementing simple logic and hence — with enough crabs — you can achieve a complete computer. The Soldier crab Mictyris guinotae has a swarming behavior that is just right for simple logic gates (PDF). When two crab swarms collide they fuse to make a single swarm — and this is enough to build an OR gate."

Overheat

[simtel]

And just think: if it overheats, your computer becomes delicious

Re:Overheat

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, but then you'll have to shell out for a new one. It might be nice in a pinch, but in the end I'll bet you'd just spend all your time trying to claw back some sort of function.

Re:

[ericloewe]

You Sir, should have posted with an account.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh stop trying to butter him up.

Re:

[sidthegeek]

And that would be quite ex-pincer-ve.

Re:

[rubycodez]

clearly the Apple iPod is inferior to the Lemon (and buttered) Arthro-pod

Re:

[quintus_horatius]

First programming language: Rangoon

seafood cooling? cooking your CPU?

[neurocutie]

Bring new meaning to running so hot you cook your CPU. Wheres the soy sauce?

One day

[avandesande]

My crotch will become sentient!

Re:One day

[Concerned Onlooker]

I wanted to mod this but there is no "ew, gross" option.

Re:One day

[Anonymous Coward]

Mine already does most of my thinking.

Re:

[binarylarry]

Sometimes I think mine already is.

You're a long way from a proof, buddy

[Anonymous Coward]

One of the hardest things about proving emergent automata to be equivalent to, for instance, Turing mahines, is not showing that specific operations can be duplicated. The hardest part is showing that the thing doesn't degenerate when more complex interactions are necessary.

If they could build more than just a simple gate -- say, a flip flop, I would be more impressed.

Re:You're a long way from a proof, buddy

[Reality Master 301]

You're just being shellfish

Re:

[queazocotal]

To a degree.
It's more complex than this.
Mainstream computers basically assume error-free operation - because it's cheaper to run the devices a little slower - or to use more area or ... than to add the extra complexity required for error tolerant computing.
You can construct computers with gates that are 99% reliable quite easily.
90% requires a lot more check logic.
By the time you hit something like 66%, the design is many times the size of the 'error free' one.

So, the next SONY VAIO...

[Quarters]

...will be able to be hit in its weak spot for MASSIVE DAMAGE!

I'd like to see..

[boaworm]

I'd really like to see what they wrote on their research grant application...

Re:

[oldhack]

They are Japanese - I hear they're pretty open-minded about these sorta things, you know, claws and tentacles and stuff.

Re:

[b4dc0d3r]

The article ends with: "The results closely matched the simulation, suggesting that crab-powered computers could indeed be possible."

I translated that to: "We have seen enough hentai to know where this is going."

Also known as, "The summary doesn't match the article" because they only predicted the possibility, they didn't actually create a crab based computer.

Re:

[uninformedLuddite]

I read that as crab paste computer. God knows why. I think my brain broke.

I broke my NIC!

[bistromath007]

Crab BIOS!!!

Re:

[Aranykai]

Are you insane? A NIC is useless against those massive claws.

Research > science fiction

[fleeped]

Seriously, in terms of imaginative ways to accomplish stuff, researchers beat the shit out of everybody.

Re:Research science fiction

[VoidCrow]

Check out Accelerando, by Charles Stross.

Re:Research science fiction

[zombie_monkey]

Ahem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerando_(novel)#Plot_summary_and_breakdown_by_story/ [wikipedia.org]

Who needs an Ipad3?

[GoodNewsJimDotCom]

Why not Zoidberg?

Maybe

[multicoregeneral]

But if they start using crabs for computers, what am I going to do for dinner on payday?

Re:

[chromas]

Fermi Bakin' Bits and chopped Celeron.

Re:

[multicoregeneral]

I'm sorry. I generally only eat Xeons, and that's more of a breakfast food.

Re:

[VoidCrow]

Chips with everything?

Try Explaining That One To Airport Security

[bschorr]

I can't wait to see the laptop version...

Re:Try Explaining That One To Airport Security

[JosephTX]

you can get that version in most shady motels and bars.

Re:

[Errol backfiring]

Well, HEX (read the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett if you don't know it) runs on ants. But it is still a bit big. And off course, I doubt that you want ants on your lap.

Terry Pratchett's big mistake

[Kupfernigk]

Instead of writing about an ant-powered computer (slogan: "Anthill inside") he should have taken out a US patent on it.

Method and implementation of a digital computer in which binary digits are living beings [..]

Claim 36: A computer as described in Claims 1-30 in which the digits are members of the phylum Arthropoda
Claim 37: A computer in which the members of Claim 36 are further members of sub-phylum Crustacea
Claim 38: A computer in which the members of Claim 36 are further members of sub-phylum Insecta
Claim 39: A read only memory in which storage is by means of members of the Phylum Arthropoda which have both a motile and a sessile stage, such as barnacles.

Re:

[AnotherAnonymousUser]

That sounds like an awesome idea for a sci-fi biological computer.

Re:

[RodBee]

Well, there's still time for him to patent his computational druidism. I don't think people made computers with cairn stones yet.

Re:

[Errol backfiring]

And if the time has run out, just go through L-space and fix it.

This sounds a lot like...

[Anonymous Coward]

Hex.
Ponder Stibbons is real!

Re:

[fjanss]

yes

Re:

[Thuktun]

Yes...yes I did.

How do you get an inverter?

[dbc]

And what is the memory density? How many crabs does it take to make a JK flip-flop?

Re:

[zAPPzAPP]

An inverter would be a swarm of crabs channeled in from outside through the VDD line, that run down the OUT line, as long as there are no crabs on the IN line.
As soon as crabs come down the IN line, they would merge with the crabs from the VDD line and the path of the combined swarm would be altered such, that they run down a third line instead of OUT, which I'd call GND.

Re:

[anonymov]

No need for special element, their AND gate is basically a 2-to-4 decoder (without 0 output line) - it has (NOT a AND b), (a AND b) and (a AND NOT b) outputs.

Just send a synchronized stream of crabs (damn, that's a nice combination of words) down one input and use corresponding output as NOT.

interesting

[circletimessquare]

because norwegian researchers already have implemented the natural communication protocol for these sorts of computers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carriers [wikipedia.org]

Re:

[PaddyM]

And of course, the Matrix explained how we'd power such a computing device and network.

Re:

[circletimessquare]

you mean powered by kitsch and ponderous explication?

Re:

[rubycodez]

firmly undergirded by the lackluster and limited emotional range of Reeves' acting

Re:

[chromas]

He was actually in the movie? I thought they just used a plank with a paper cutout stapled on..

Re:

[VoidCrow]

grrr... Keany Reeves is *hot*!

Re:

[rubycodez]

if you were looking for a mostly emotionless and non-emotive partner to lie there and "just take it", I suppose there is some merit in thinking so....

Not Logically Complete

[Anonymous Coward]

They've got AND and OR gates, but no inverters. You can't really build a computer with that.

Re:

[mikejuk]

The AND gate also produces NOT X AND Y and X AND NOT Y outputs. All you have to do is hold Y high and you have a NOT X gate.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

> All you have to do is hold Y high and you have a NOT X gate.

That's a NAND gate, not an AND gate. You can do complete logic with NAND or XNOR. No other single gate is capable of it.

Re:

[masterme120]

You forgot NOR.

Re:

[mikejuk]

Once you have a NOT gate you simply put it after an OR and you have a NOR.

Re:

[masterme120]

I meant you can do complete logic with just NOR.

Re:

[lvxferre]

Want a NOT gate? Show the crabs your cookware.


And a Linux crab machine would have a nice shell.

Re:

[zAPPzAPP]

Inverters are easy with crab-tech.
See some posts above.

Obligatory...

[cigawoot]

But will it play Doom?

Re:

[MaskedSlacker]

No, but Farcry might be in the cards.

Re:

[Hillgiant]

If you use head crabs, you can play Half-Life.

So that's the secret..

[msobkow]

... to Dr. Blowhole's crab army in The Penguins of Madagascar. They're not just his fighting force, they're his compute core. :P

Human computer

[thereitis]

Get your tin foil hat ready. What computer program are *we* running? Make the rich richer 2.0?

Re:

[allo]

computing the question.

Re:

[ZarelTgr]

Well... there goes another 7.5 million years...

Re:

[metaforest]

Get your tin foil hat ready. What computer program are *we* running? Make the rich richer 2.0?

I'm thinking the USians are running Collapse of the Republic - Release 2 revision 3 build 118
(build 119 is due out in Nov, and may have a new Executive Module)

On a related note, someone at my local post office posted a rather clever graphic hack on the community bulletin board (in meatspace). The graphic depicts the sinking of the Titanic, nosing down into the ocean. The superstructure of the ship has been replaced by an image of the US Capitol building. In the foreground two longboats are depicted. On

First thought after reading...

[cg88]

...was Realtek. I mean come on, their logo ( http://www.realtek.com.tw/ [realtek.com.tw] ) is a freaking crab anyway. How long before we see cheap network or sound cards based on _actual_ crab technology!?

Re:

[anonymov]

Misread it as "cheap network or sound crabs"

Could be done, electrically stimulate a crab to snap its pincers, employ good old pulse-width modulation and add some output filters.

Then get a bunch of them and make a polyphonic sound crab.

performance is described

[steve.cri]

as crabby

He gets a lot right

[burdickjp]

I've read this one before... O! That's right! Here it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Age [wikipedia.org]

I for one,

[excelsior_gr]

welcome our supercomputing, sidewise crawling crab overlords.

Creepy!

[Asgerix]

That is genuinely creepy!

I'll won't believe it until...

[Faulkner39]

...someone makes this in Minecraft.

Take over the world

[Anonymous Coward]

With a Beowulf cluster of these, (and a few sharks with lasers, I could take over the world.

Important questions

[StikyPad]

These are the more pressing questions I didn't see answered in the article:

Will these crab-based computers play tentacle-based porn?

Will these computers be sold by weight or by volume?

Is there anything Japan *won't* do with seafood?

Crabs or Crayfish Based. . .

[jeffrlamb]

Cray(fish)-based has existed for decades. Cray(fish) [wikipedia.org]