Re: future of programming languages

From: Malcolm (malcolm_at_55bank.freeserve.co.uk)
Date: 03/30/04 

Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 22:19:54 +0100

"Ben Pfaff" <blp@cs.stanford.edu> wrote in message
>
> I'm curious what you mean by "computers will have no CPUs."
> Can you elaborate?
>
A typical computer has an instruction stream which passes through a limited
number of registers or logic gates. Though nowadays there is often some
parallelism, conceptually instructions are still executed in sequence.
A nervous system doesn't work like that. Each nerve input is processed by
neurons and output produced in a massively parallel system. Even when you
remove protions of the brain, processing is often only slightly degraded.
Nervous systems can do thing which it is very difficult to program computers
to do, but are of real use away from the protected environment of
pre-formatted input and defined output that most programs operate in.
Recognising individual people by a visual image, for example, even if the
face is partially obscured by a coffee mug.