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Living Human Neuron Biological Compute Rack
I've been talking about server racks using living human neurons for about the last 25 years, and finally they're doing it!
(Biological Computing Rack With Living Human Neurons)
NUS Medicine, data centre operator DayOne, and Melbourne-based Cortical Labs have deployed a 20-unit biological computing rack at the National University of Singapore’s Life Sciences Institute. The system went live July 16 and was formally unveiled Aug. 17 after an Aug. 6 demonstration for more than 80 guests.The installation brings biological computing into a live research environment as Singapore expands data-centre capacity while tightening energy-efficiency requirements. NUS Medicine said the demonstration showed CL1 computing units, microelectrode-array integration, and real-time neural network activity, while The Straits Times reported details of the system’s operation and maintenance...
To keep the living processors viable, the server rack is integrated with an advanced mechanical life-support system that regulates temperature, maintains fluid balance, and delivers nutrients, sustaining the cells for an active six-month lifespan. The ultimate promise of this hybrid technology lies in its incredible energy efficiency: a single CL1 biological unit draws just 30 watts of power—including its life support—compared to upwards of 700 watts for a high-end Nvidia H100 silicon GPU. While not meant to fully replace traditional silicon, it opens a revolutionary, low-power path for specialized tasks like drug discovery, fraud detection, and adaptive robotics.
This looks exactly like the head cheese aka smart gels from Peter Watts' excellent 1999 novel Starfish.
The Pacific Ocean slopped two kilometers under his feet. He had a cargo of blank-eyed psychotics sitting behind him. And the lifter was being piloted by a large pizza with extra cheese...Ray had been in this very cockpit, watching the pizza being installed and no doubt wondering when the term "job security" had become an oxymoron... The techs were playing with a square vanilla box, half a meter on a side and about twice as thick as Kita's wrist.
Humans had always been able to integrate 3-D spatial information better than the machines that kept trying to replace them...
Until now, apparently...
"It's one of those smart gels," Ray said at last... "Head cheese. Cultured brains on a slab. The same things they've been plugging into the Net to firewall infections."
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