this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2024
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Honestly I've wondered this about shining a laser through some kind of laser-etched glass. Only problem is, I have no idea how to represent something like an activation function using only reflection and such.
Think you might've commented on the wrong post
Haha naw, it's the same basic idea, just using something inorganic (like glass) to represent a neural network instead of something like biological neurons.
Cool idea, though existing computers are also an inorganic way to representing a neural net
Well, yes, but something like an etched glass would be better in basically every way, if it could be done. (See my other comment in this thread if you want more details)
What on earth are you talking about?
A neural network is an array of layered nodes, where each node contains some kind of activation function, and each connection represents some weight multiplier. Importantly, once the model is trained, it's stateless, meaning we don't need to store any extra data to use it - just inputs and outputs.
If we could take some sort of material, like a glass, and modify it so that if you shone a light through one end, the light would bounce in such a way as to emulate these functions and weights, you could create an extremely cheap, compact, fast, and power efficient neural network. In theory, at least.
So just ML on an optical computer, or some sort of baseless sci-fi thing you made up?
A mix of both, but keep in mind that I'm commenting on a post about a related made up sci-fi idea.
It most certainly is not: https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/12/11/1084926/human-brain-cells-chip-organoid-speech-recognition/
Neural organoids have been a thing for a few years now.