Organismoids Mimic Our Brains!

A newly developed computing technology has the ability to learn now to retain important information and forget less important memories. The new technology, called “organismoids” mimics some aspects of human thought, erasing unimportant memories and constantly making room for new learning.

Scientists from Purdue, Rutgers University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brookhaven National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory explain the project as follows: “These devices possess certain characteristics of living beings and enable us to advance new learning algorithms that mimic some aspects of the human brain. The results have far reaching implications for the fields of quantum materials as well as brain-inspired computing.”

Samarium nickelate, the key substance for the research is a ceramic “quantum material”. When this material exposed to hydrogen gas, it undergoes a massive resistance change, as hydrogen atoms stick onto its crystal lattice. The material “breathes”, expanding when hydrogen is added and contracting when the hydrogen is removed.

Researchers state that this resistance changing is a highly unusual effect of quantum mechanics and is similar to a key animal behaviour called habituation. For that reason, they resemble the material’s behaviour to memory and information flow in living brains, defining it as an “organic” process. Scientists claim that this new technology may play a major role in developing facial recognition, reasoning and human-like decision making skills in artificial intelligence applications.

Organismoids might have applications in the emerging field of spintronics. Conventional computers use the presence and absence of an electric charge to represent ones and zeroes in a binary code needed to carry out computations. Spintronics, however, uses the “spin state” of electrons to represent ones and zeros.