A future form of computing could see information stored on clusters of microscopic particles suspended in liquid.
Clusters of spheres can arrange themselves around a central sphere in a limited number of ways, similar to how a Rubik’s cube can only be twisted in certain ways around the central point. Sharon Glotzer at the University of Michigan and her team realised these states could represent information.
To test the idea, the team created a cluster of five spheres in a liquid and watched them naturally switch between two states, like the 0s and 1s of traditional computing bits. “It’s really just the first baby steps,” says Glotzer. Next, they plan to create clusters that can be locked into a particular state to store a bit of data, and unlocked again to rewrite it, using a central sphere made from gel that can swell and shrink. (1)
The whole universe full of bits.
The whole universe a giant computer.
Are we just part of it’s RAM?
Or are we the ones who program it?
Do you feel like a god a… bit?
