Toward Turing's A-type Unorganised Machines in an Unconventional Substrate: a Dynamic Representation in Compartmentalised Excitable Chemical Media

TL;DR

This paper explores implementing Turing's unorganised machines within chemical media, specifically Belousov-Zhabotinsky vesicles, extending the representation to include more Boolean functions and demonstrating potential for unconventional computing.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to realize Turing's unorganised machines in chemical substrates, expanding the computational capabilities with a broader set of Boolean functions.

Findings

Initial results demonstrate feasibility of chemical-based unorganised machines.

Extended Boolean function set enhances computational versatility.

Potential for unconventional, bio-inspired computing architectures.

Abstract

Turing presented a general representation scheme by which to achieve artificial intelligence - unorganised machines. Significantly, these were a form of discrete dynamical system and yet such representations remain relatively unexplored. Further, at the same time as also suggesting that natural evolution may provide inspiration for search mechanisms to design machines, he noted that mechanisms inspired by the social aspects of learning may prove useful. This paper presents initial results from consideration of using Turing's dynamical representation within an unconventional substrate - networks of Belousov-Zhabotinsky vesicles - designed by an imitation-based, i.e., cultural, approach. Turing's representation scheme is also extended to include a fuller set of Boolean functions at the nodes of the recurrent networks.