Computation: evolutionary, neural, molecular

A confluence of factors emanating from computer science, biology, and technology have brought self-organizing approaches back to the fore. Neural networks in particular provide high evolvability platforms for variation-selection search strategies. The neuron doctrine and the fundamental nature of computing come into question. Is a neuron an atom of the brain or is it itself a complex information processing system whose interior molecular dynamics can be elicited and exploited through the evolution process? We argue the latter point of view, illustrating how high evolvability dynamics can be achieved with artificial neuromolecular computer designs and how such designs might in due course be implemented using molecular computing devices. A tabletop enzyme-driven prototype recently implemented in our laboratory is briefly described; it can be thought of as a sort of artificial neuron in which the context sensitivity of enzyme recognition is used to transform injected signal patterns into output activity