The computer that never crashes

[JMH]

A revolutionary new computer based on the apparent chaos of nature can reprogram itself if it finds a fault

OUT of chaos, comes order. A computer that mimics the apparent randomness found in nature can instantly recover from crashes by repairing corrupted data.

Dubbed a "systemic" computer, the self-repairing machine now operating at University College London (UCL) could keep mission-critical systems working. For instance, it could allow drones to reprogram themselves to cope with combat damage, or help create more realistic models of the human brain.

Everyday computers are ill suited to modelling natural processes such as how neurons work or how bees swarm. This is because they plod along sequentially, executing one instruction at a time. "Nature isn't like that," says UCL computer scientist Peter Bentley. "Its processes are distributed, decentralised and probabilistic. And they are fault tolerant, able to heal themselves. A computer should be able to do that."

The computer that never crashes - tech - 14 February 2013 - New Scientist

 

[AceInfinity]

If there's a way to damage it's "restructuring' logic, then there's a flaw with this :) If you can imagine this computer being a human being, programmed to put out fires for example, if anybody has sufficient access to that kind of programmed logic, we can say restructure it to make fires, which is the complete reverse. So in some way they need to effectively separate this process from the rest of the machine or I can see this being even worse for the future of technology.

"Anything non-mechanical and achieved by programming can just as easily be destroyed by the same" :thumbsup2:

 

[AceInfinity]

I'll repost what I shared with my own members on this subject:

They are focusing on a computer that seems to be able to repair itself if it finds a fault. I'm assuming this means at runtime, but then this begs the question for "How?". I can personally think of ways that this can be done, but depending on the way it repairs itself, it needs some kind of logic arguably, to determine how it's supposed to repair something... (For instance, you don't just get told to ride a bicycle for the first time and you go do it, perhaps you need practice, but you also need to know how to ride a bicycle before you can even start.) Now think of what might happen and how destructive this could be it some other piece of executed code had authority to modify this logic, and essentially turn this "brain" into a good one gone bad.

They already put out the idea that this could be used to repair damaged drones. I can only imagine how screwed up and disastrous this could be if some other piece of code could reprogram it's thinking to do something entirely different, and something in which it was not originally intended to do.

Some way, this logic needs to be completely separated from the workings of the computer itself, or I could probably spell "trouble" with this new innovation.

Btw - Anybody ever seen IRobot? Almost, seems like a possibility of movie history repeating itself in our reality doesn't it? Giving a more realistic brain to a computer to do a task?

 

[Temmu]

self-repairing system. fascinating.