“The topic here is future technologies, computing research that
might not prove immediately useful, but will likely need a few
years’ ripening before it becomes widespread — if it ever
does….”
“I’ve written the first installment of the column on the topic
of amorphous computing, also known as swarm computing. The
invention of Harold Abelson, Gerald Sussman and a host of their MIT
fellows, swarm computing uses many thousands — or even millions —
of modest (eight-bit, for example), very cheap, probably unreliable
processors.”
“At this point, swarm computing raises more questions than
answers. For example, do we build swarm computers with
semiconductors, or from new computing elements fashioned of
biomolecules? How do we program unreliable processors and
unreliable communications links? What will we do with a
Cray’s-worth of computing power in a credit card, or the frame of
your glasses, or painted on the wall of your house or woven into
your shirt?”