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Associated Emerging Topics:
1.1Advanced Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) aims to build machines that are able to behave in ways we associate with human activity: perceiving and analysing our environment, taking decisions, communicating and learning. There are various approaches to achieving this. The most well-known, and arguably most advanced, is machine learning (ML), which itself has various broad approaches.
1.2Quantum Technologies
Systems made up of subatomic particles like electrons and photons are subject to physical laws unlike the ones we are familiar with. Quantum technologies make use of two phenomena unique to such quantum systems. One is “superposition”, where a quantum entity’s physical properties remain undefined until they are measured, creating an entirely novel mechanism for encoding information. The other is “entanglement”, where quantum entities have intertwined properties that mean action on one entity instantly affect the outcome of future actions on its entangled twin, even when they are physically separated.
1.3Brain-inspired Computing
The most powerful, flexible and efficient “computer” that we know of is the one we all carry in our heads: the human brain. Research in the field of brain-inspired, or neuromorphic, computing seeks to develop machines that will ultimately display the same capabilities, often by emulating the brain's elements, structures and processes.
1.4Biological Computing
The component parts of biology often take a molecular input, carry out some process using molecular or cellular “machinery”, and output a related molecule or set of molecules. This has clear parallels with the way silicon-based computing works: take some input, transform it using some arrangement of Boolean logic gates, and produce some output. This observation has seeded the field of biological computing, or biocomputing, in which researchers attempt to modify or build biological systems to perform computing-like routines.
Related Content:
The Origins of Life
What is life? Scientists have puzzled over this question for centuries, but the discovery of planets outside our solar system means that it has taken on new importance in recent years.