Can an Ant Colony run Microsoft Word?

In this talk Peter Bentley explores the differences between conventional computation and "natural computation" as performed by living systems. He describes the origins of his ideas, giving examples of models developed at UCL in collaboration with biologists, engineers and artists (e.g., evolving systems, neural network models, swarming systems, embodied robotics). He then describes "systemic computation" - his model of computation that enables a coherent description of natural systems, and improved modelling of such systems. He provides examples of how this work has demonstrated practical improvements, e.g. in self-repairing software, and describes ongoing work in self-assembling devices, and other evolving, adaptive software and hardware.