PPT Slide
Computation and Biology share a common obsession with strings of letters, which are translated into complex 3D and 4D structures. Evolution (biological, technical, and cultural) will probably continue to act via manipulation of symbols (A, C, G, T, 0 & 1 , A-Z) plus "selection" at the highest "systems" levels. The power of these systems lies in complexity.
Simple representations of them (fractals, surgery, and drugs) may not be as fruitful as detailed programming of the symbols aided by hierarchical models and highly-parallel testing. Local decisions no longer stay local.Examples are the Internet, computer viruses, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), replicating nanotechnology, bioterrorism, global warming, and biological species transport. Information (& education) is becoming increasingly easy to spread (and hard to control). We are on the verge of begin able to collect data on almost any system at costs of
The world is manipulating increasingly complex systems, many at steeper-than-exponential rates. Much of this is happening without much modeling. Some people predict a "singularity" in our lifetime or at least the creation of systems more intelligent (and/or more proliferative) than we are (possibly as little as 100 Teraflops/terabytes). We need to not only teach our students how to cope with this, but start thinking about how to teach these "intelligent" systems as if they were students. As integrated circuits reach their limit soon, the next generation of computers may be based on quantum computing and/or biologically inspired. We need to be able to teach our students about this revolution, and via the Internet teach anyone else listening.