Good news everyone! The very powers of chaos have been harnessed in the newest iteration of computer chip technology! Scientists have developed logic components called “chaogates” that use the unpredictable and ever-changing universe to improve calculating efficiency, allowing for infinitely customizable circuitry.
Computer chips are designed with a specific function in mind. Even your seemingly multitasking PC processor is, at its core, an addition machine, not too much different from an abacus. Computers rely on Boolean algebra (logic necessary to computer science) and can only do a finite set of operations. In theory, circuits are only capable of addition and multiplication, but through inversion of bits and other numerical wizardry, division and subtraction become possible.
The three fundamental operations of a computer are “AND,” “OR” and “NOT.” They are logical operators called “logic gates” that perform Boolean arithmetic and are created by changing the negative and positive tendencies of transistors.
Computers deal only with binary data and are restricted to performing the equations that their particular structure of logic gates allows them to. These operations are hard wired into the silicon, so processor specifications and capabilities must be thought of well in advance.
The AND and OR gates take two inputs, and depending on the criteria provide a single output. The AND gate will display a 1 only if both of its inputs are 1’s, any other combination yields a 0. The OR gate will display a 1 if any of its two inputs are 1’s. The NOT gate is essentially an inverter, with a single input and single output. It takes a value and provides the inverse, making 1’s into 0’s and vice versa.
Because of these basic logical operators, a computer must break down the user’s information through various levels of software and turn it into operations that a processor can handle. All of your programs, videos and games are at their core fueled by binary addition.
Chaogates aim to change this by allowing the computer to re-purpose itself to the task at hand. The chaogates don’t intend to transform the basic logic, or at least not yet, but will attempt to harness the inherent uncertainty of the universe in order to speed calculations.
When trying to define Chaos Theory, Ian Stewart’s definition has come to be the standard example, and is commonly referred to as the “Butterfly Effect”:
“The flapping of a single butterfly’s wing today produces a tiny change in the state of the atmosphere. Over a period of time, what the atmosphere actually does diverges from what it would have done. So, in a month’s time, a tornado that would have devastated the Indonesian coast doesn’t happen. Or maybe one that wasn’t going to happen, does.” The example shows how over time a small change in a system will propagate itself and cause a drastically different outcome than what was otherwise expected.
The effect was noted during meteorology experiments by Edward Lorenz, who was working on modeling a weather system and attempted to run a particular simulation twice. “When he came back an hour later, the sequence had evolved differently. Instead of the same pattern as before, it diverged from the pattern, ending up wildly different from the original,” according to imho.com. The cause of the changes had been the lack of the final three decimal points in the input parameters, as the computer stored six but Lorenz only used three.
Essentially, what it means is that the gates exist in an uncertain state and change according to the computer’s computational needs. The input parameters define the logical set up of the system, ensuring that the circuitry is always the most efficient configuration for the given problem. ScienceDaily.com breaks the operation down as such:
“[The gates] used chaotic patterns to encode and manipulate inputs to produce a desired output. They selected desired patterns from the infinite variety offered by a chaotic system. A subset of these patterns was then used to map the system inputs (initial conditions) to their desired outputs. The inputs are then tied to user-controlled or influenced parameters, and depending on these the chaos gate can ‘morph’ to a required state — assuming the role of any needed logical function.”
The implications of this are massive, as a single chaogate could replace what was traditionally accomplished by arrays of transistors, not to mention it would cause a complete overhaul of programming languages and the basic logic that governs all of today’s software. Small changes in the input parameters could, according to chaos theory, change the final operating environment substantially. This would let you tailor your processor to the task you’re doing at the moment, letting you build your technology around your needs.
