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During the early days of humanity natural resources were used to provide food and shelter. We soon
learned to modify and manage nature. Then we started to observe and study natural phenomenon in
order to understand how nature works

Example

By learning about the physical laws of motion and gravity it became possible to design aircrafts.

By understanding some basic principles of life it is now possible to manage nature at various levels,
from the creation of transgenic food to the control of diseases.

Natural Computing

Investigates models and computational techniques inspired by nature

Attempts to understand the world around us in terms of information processing

Interdisciplinary field that connects computer sciences with natural sciences

The main idea of natural computing is that, information processing is a natural process for us.

Three types of approaches

1. computing inspired by nature

2. Simulation and emulation of natural phenomenon in computers

3. Computing with natural materials

Computing inspired by nature

i. Nature as Inspiration

ii. Nature as Implementation Substrate

iii. Nature as Computation

Nature as Inspiration

 Cellular Automata
 Neural Computation
 Evolutionary Computation
 Swarm Intelligence
 Immuno-computing
 Artificial Life
  Membrane Computing

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Motivation

 Why should we study natural computing?

 Why should research in this broad area be supported?
 Many reasons for doing this
 Many products of NC are already available in various forms nowadays,
 Inside computers as virtual life in
 Washing machines, toys, train, air conditioning, devices and so forth

Natural phenomenon e.g. processes, substances, organisms etc. have long inspired people to mimic,
design and build novel systems and artifacts.

For many centuries, the observation of natural world has allowed people to devise theories about how
nature works?

Artifacts, such as chemicals used for pharmaceutics, infrared imaging systems, airplanes, submarines
etc. were all developed by taking inspiration from nature, from animals (bats etc.) to chemical
substances.

NC is also proven to be useful for a better understanding of life processes through the development of
highly abstract models of nature.

Sometimes natural computing techniques can be directly aimed at being theoretical models of nature,
providing novel insights into how nature works.

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A Small sample of ideas

The history of science is marked by several major breakthroughs.

The discoveries of

 Galileo, Newtonian mechanics,

 Darwin’s theory, Mendel’s genetics,
 Quantum physics
 Computers etc.

We are in midst of another technological revolution, The Natural Computing age,

A time when the interaction and the similarity between computing and nature is becoming each day
greater.
We may notice that, our spreadsheets recalculating faster our grammar checker finally works, several
complex problems being solved, Cars driving themselves and Robots talking

Some natural phenomenon and processes involving natural means

Clustering of dead bodies in ant colonies

Bird flocking

Manipulating DNA strands

The basic mechanism behind this type of clustering or grouping phenomenon is an attraction between
dead items mediated by the ants. Small clusters of items grow by attracting more workers to deposit
more dead bodies.

This grouping phenomenon can be modeled using two simple rules:

 Pick up rule
 Dropping rule

When we see birds flocking in the sky, it is most natural to assume that the birds follow a leader the one
in front of the flock.

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The philosophy of natural computing

How researchers discover the laws and mechanisms that are so effective in uncovering how nature
functions and how these can be used for computing?

 Scientific explanations have been dominated by the formulation of principles and rules
governing system’s behavior.
 Researchers usually assume that natural systems and processes are governed by finite sets of
rules.
 Most of the computational approaches of NC deals with are based on highly simplified versions
of the mechanism and process present in the corresponding natural phenomena
 First of all, most simplifications are necessary to make the computation with a large number of
entities
 To highlight the minimal features necessary to enable some particular aspects of a system to be
reproduced and to observe some emergent properties.

A common question that may arise is: if it is possible to do something using simple techniques why use
more complicated ones?

How to create and understand abstractions, thus making a suitable simplification of a system without
abolishing the important features that are to be reproduced.
Which level is more appropriate?

What type of problem one wants to solve, or the life phenomenon to be synthesized.

Simple behavioral rules of insects are even sufficient for the development of computational tools for
solving combinatorial problems

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Branches of NC

 Computing inspired by nature

 The simulation and emulation of nature in computers
 Computing with natural materials

1. Computing inspired by nature

Nature has greatly enriched computing, been very successful in solving complex problems. There is an
urge for survival in living organisms.

2. The simulation and emulation of nature in computers

It provides new tools for the synthesis and study of natural phenomena that can be used to test
biological theories usually not passive of testing via the traditional and experimental techniques. It is in
most cases a synthetic approach aimed at synthesizing natural phenomena or known patterns and
behaviors.

There are two main approaches to the simulation and emulation of nature in computers,

 Artificial life
 Fractal geometry of nature

3. Computing with natural materials

It is concerned with new computing methods based on other natural material than silicon

These methods result in a non-standard computation that overcome some of the limitations of
standard, sequential John von Neumann computers

Motivated by the need to identify alternative media for computing,

researchers are now trying to design new computers based on molecules, such as membranes, DNA
and RNA, or quantum theory

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Computing inspired by nature

 Also termed as bio-inspired computing or biologically motivated Computing

Components of computing inspired by nature

This neuronal model, also known as artificial neuron gave rise to a field of investigation of its own,
the so-called artificial neural networks

Another computing approach motivated by biology arose in mid 1960s gave rise to the field of
evolutionary computing which uses ideas from evolutionary biology to develop evolutionary
algorithms for search and optimization

Evolutionary Algorithms

Main types of EAs

 Genetic Algorithms
 Evolution strategies
 Evolutionary programming
 Genetic programming and
 Classifier systems

Swarm Intelligence

The term swarm intelligence was coined in the late 1980s to refer to cellular robotic system in which a
collection of simple agents in an environment interact based on local rules

Now days, the term is being used to describe any attempt to design algorithms or problem solving
devices inspired by the collective behavior of social organisms, from insect colonies to human societies.

AIS

Artificial immune system (AIS) or immune-computing borrow ideas from the immune system and its
corresponding models to design computational system for solving complex problems

This is also a young field of research that emerged around the mid 1980’s its application areas range
from biology to robotics.

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The simulation and emulation of nature in computers

It is in most cases a synthetic approach aimed at synthesizing natural phenomena or known patterns and
behaviors

There are two main approaches to the simulation and emulation of nature in computers,

 Artificial life
  Fractal geometry of nature

Recent advances in computer graphics have made it possible to visualize mathematical models of
natural structures and processes with unprecedented realism

Fractals

One major breakthrough in the modeling and synthesis of natural patterns and structures is the
recognition that nature is fractal in the sense that it can be successfully emulated by fractal geometry

What are Fractals?

Fractals are rough or fragmented geometric shapes that can be subdivided into parts, each of which is
exactly, or statistically a reduced-size copy of the whole.

Fractal Geometry

It is the geometry of nature with all its irregular, fragmented and complex structures.

Nature provides many examples of fractals, e.g. ferns, coastlines, mountains, trees, organisms, our
organs etc. Their applications include,

 landscape design,
 study of growth
 development, analysis of natural processes

Artificial Life

A Life is devoted to a new discipline that investigates the scientific, engineering, philosophical, and social
issues involved in our rapidly increasing technological ability to synthesize life-like behaviors from
scratch in computers, machines, molecules, and other alternative media.

A Life has its major goals,

 to increases the understanding of nature (life-as-it-is)

 enhance our insight into artificial models and possibly new forms of life (life-as-it-could-be)
 to develop new technologies, sophisticated robots, educational systems, graphics etc.
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 Computing with natural materials
 It is concerned with new computing methods based on natural material other than silicon
 These methods result in a non-standard computation that overcome some of the limitations of
standard, sequential John von Neumann computers
 Motivated by the need to identify alternative media for computing, researchers are now trying
to design new computers based on molecules (DNA and RNA), membranes, or quantum theory
 DNA Computing
 Proposed by Leonard Adleman, utilizing the property of DNA for massively parallel computation.
 With an appropriate setup and enough DNA, one can potentially solve huge problems by parallel
search.
 Can be much faster than utilizing a conventional computer
 Quantum Computing
 A quantum computer is a machine that performs calculations based on the laws of quantum
mechanics, which is the behavior of particles at the sub-atomic level.