Organic computing

Brain organization, molecular biology, autonomic computing, self-organization
Abstract: As outlined in Denis Bray’s book “Wetware”, living cells, brains and computers can be seen as vast arrays of switches able to perform purposefully. The term “computing” was originally understood as referring to the deterministic manipulation of symbols under algorithmic (that is, human) control, but by now it has acquired connotations that let it be applied also to the non-deterministic, evolving, self-organizing and learning processes going on in cells and brains and that suggest novel ways to think about the vast signal processing network beginning to endow the globe with a nervous system. I will briefly outline what the fields dealing with cells, brains and computers have in common and how they can profit from the exchange of ideas and methods.