Are Starship Voyager's Bio-Neural Gel Pack Computers Real?
Will Computers Become Biologically Based Like Captain Janeway's Ship?
Let us engage in sci-fi, speculative fun together…
Does our future hold untold wonders where our devices will be constructed of more than simply metal and plastic? Will we one day operate within an era of truly living computers? I speak of artificial intelligence based around a biological foundation. We see this in Star Trek: Voyager; a bio-neural gel pack supporting and augmenting the sophisticated computing capability of an advanced warp capable vessel.
It’s a kind of awe inspiring computer architecture which Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) employs in her Starship Voyager. It sounds exotic and technologically powerful, however, what exactly is this fabled sci-fi tech which powers Janeway’s flight into the Delta Quadrant? Will we harness it ourselves in the real world?
If we consult with the web’s Star Trek Encyclopedia. From Memory-Alpha:
Gel packs are a major component of bio-neural circuitry, which was a hybrid organic-electronic computer system. The packs contained neural fibers surrounded in a blue gel with metallic interfaces on the top and bottom. They helped store more information and operated at faster speeds than isolinear circuitry.
Fibers in a gel pack are capable of making billions of connections, thus generating an incredibly sophisticated and responsive computing architecture. This organic circuitry allows computers to "think" in similar ways to living organisms; by using "fuzzy logic", they can effectively operate by making a "best guess" answer to complex questions rather than working through all possible calculations. This was due in part to the inherent ability of organic neural systems to correlate chaotic patterns that eluded the capacities of conventional hardware.
OK. Great. Sounds practical enough, if at least feasible in a kind of Star Treknology sort of way. But what of us getting by in the real computing world? Is this at all something which computer scientists are actually considering as viable?
Quantum Computing
Quantum computers are described as a Holy Grail kind of digital magic, yet scientists struggle to bring them into practical reality,. Finally, the incredible promise of quantum computing seems poised to be fulfilled in the near future. We’re hearing about real breakthroughs in this potentially world changing technology all the time.
Why is a quantum computer so special? It’s incredibly technical, but it’s all about speed. Complex calculations which would take months or even years by using our fastest standard supercomputers, now may be crunched into completion within days or even hours by the quirk of the quantum.
Recently, Google announced what could be a game changing scientific discovery. Like something right out of Avengers: Endgame, the company says it has successfully created Time Crystals.
Whoa. Marvel in the house. Where’s Thor and the Hulk when ya need em? Is Thanos coming for Google engineers and their version of the legendary Time Stone?
Here’s the lowdown on this sci-fi sounding report, from TechRadar Pro:
As Quanta Magazine explains, a time crystal is both stable and constantly in flux, with definable states repeating at predictable intervals without ever dissolving into a state of total randomness.
Even some of the most in the know scientists say it’s hard to fully comprehend what this tech could mean to our future, but it could be truly enormous. That’s in the quantum realm - but what of the ‘living’ realm, as we see Ensign Kim, Chakotay and Chief Engineer Torres deal with on our favorite lost in space Delta Quadrant Trek?
Five Alive
Artificial lifeform, Johnny Five, from the fun, sci-fi film, Short Circuit, was well, alive - after a fashion. The childlike robot needed constant input to learn about the world. In the end, he convinced all around him that his intelligence wasn’t simply artificial, but one of a truly dynamic sentience. Of course, Johnny’s life affirming smarts was courtesy of a wayward lightning bolt hitting him, ala Frankenstein like birth, but it bears noticing that intelligence may indeed come from a lifeform.
Can we really expect biologically based computers like the ones which Starfleet installed on Janeway’s vessel?
Maybe.
In an article, Biological Computing is Getting Closer to Reality, read how it’s explained.
Bio-neural gel packs were featured in a number of Star Trek episodes and movies…. I wrote about what was then current research on the subject and described advantages biological computing would have over the technologies we use today. The key one is energy use. A biological computer would require only 1% of the energy needed to operate an electronic transistor.
That they can genetically induce bacteria to communicate using electronic controls to influence behaviour. This is biomolecular information transfer and is bringing the science fiction future close to a 21st century reality. Not only does it demonstrate the potential to create bio-neural gel packs that can be integrated with silicon or quantum computing devices, it also means we are discovering a way to communicate with the very cells in our bodies and developing tools to potentially manipulate them. The latter has significant implications for curing diseases.
So, will your next Apple Macbook, Samsung or Dell Laptop have little creatures ‘living inside’ the framework? Maybe not, however, as science fiction merges closer to our own reality, we’re finding the marvels we love to watch in Star Trek or Marvel movies edge ever closer to supporting our own day to day lives.