Bruce Damer's talk on the Von Neumann Bottleneck, given to the Singularity University, NASA Ames Research Center, July 8, 2009

1. Breaking the Von Neumann Bottleneck And the future of Computing Bruce Damer for the Singularity University July 8, 2009

2. Understanding what is going to be possible with computing in the future is inseparable with knowing its origins in the past. The birth of modern digital computing in the 1930s through the 1950s has placed an indelible mark on how digital spaces are structured today. The vast majority of computing is locked into the von Neumann architecture, originating from John von Neumann's work on Electronic Computer Project at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey six decades ago. Today, challenges in advanced computing where we wish to simulate and observe emergent phenomena that model nature at the quantum, chemical and higher levels run hard up against the insidiously hidden but still built-in von Neumann Bottleneck . Overcoming this bottleneck may simply be a matter of throwing more computers, cores or pipelines at the problem, or it might require a re-thinking of computing architectures and software entirely.

3. In this presentation, we will take a whirlwind visual tour of the history of computing, beginning with the Colossus code-breaking machine of World War Two, through Von Neumann’s ECP project, the birth of interactive personal computing in the 1960s and 1970s, the coming of the network in the 1980s and 1990s, 3D virtual worlds and the GPU as a breakaway UI and computing paradigm of the 1990s, and multi-core, grid and cloud computing of the 2000s. We will then take a look at a recently launched visionary computing challenge called the EvoGrid and how it maps onto these architectures and suggest where we might be headed (or not headed).

4. The Tour to Come Where did the Von Neumann Machine Come from? Why and how did von Neumann’s architecture come to dominate the Computing World? How Von Neumann Machines May or May Not be able to Compute Nature (in which case concepts like a singularity or other bio-inspired phenomena in digital technology are off the table) The EvoGrid: An Origin of Artificial Life Project in the Von Neumann digital space An Alternate View: Non-Von Neumann digital space: Systemic Computing

5. WWII Bletchley Park Codebreakers The Colossus: a Non-Von Neumann Digital Computer

6. 1944 – The Colossus Rebuild

7. 1946 – Eniac, programming by plug board

11. Enter John von Neumann

12. Birth of the First True Digital Computer The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton NJ - 1946

13. Von Neumann Architecture

14. All Programming done in common instruction/data memory (cybernetic feedback)

15. Architecture of Contingency: Memory Clock

16. Public Unveiling of Electronic Computer, 1952

17. Robert Oppenheimer John von Neumann Alan Richards photographer. Courtesy of The Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, USA

18. The ECP: Compact, fast, stored program, world changing

19. Forty Williams Tubes for Cache Memory

20. Programs and data loaded and stored on IBM Punched Cards

21. ECP punched card

22. ECP Program #3: Experiments in biometric evolution… 1953 report by Nils Baricelli

23. Baricelli Report & EvoGrid Design

24. Baricelli “Blueprints”

25. Baricelli “Blueprints”

26. Punched Card Output Photo Captures first direct visual output of a program state (memory)

27. The world’s first Artifical Life program

28. Why and How did von Neumann’s architecture come to dominate the computing world? Answer: it was open sourced!

29. Entering the IAS Director’s Files

35. The meteoric rise and dominance of von Neumann’s architecture

38. Interactive *personal* computing begins the LINC - 1962

43. The ARPANET and the creation of the first networked multi-user graphical space – Maze War 1974

44. Maze War in Action

46. Alto Screen (Draw) courtesy Al Kossow

49. Star Desktop Environment

50. Star Desktop Environment The Explosion of visual interfaces

53. In Walk the Avatars, Lucasfilm Habitat - 1986

54. Explosion of Social Virtual Worlds platforms (Book Avatars by Damer – 1997)

55. AlphaWorld “satellite map” 1995-96

57. Elements of Avatars98

61. Computer history brought to you by the Digibarn

63. 2008: A Grand Scientific Challenge takes on the Von Neumann Bottleneck: The EvoGrid, an “Origin of Artificial Life”

64. Origins of Life: Archaean to Cambrian 1997: Digital Burgess - quest for life’s algorithmic origins in the “Cambrian Explosion”, Biota.org

65. Early exemplar: Karl Sims’ Evolving Virtual Creatures (1991-4) “ Soft” Artificial Life Through the Ages: field named in the 1980s, progress through the 1990s, 2000s Evolving Virtual Creatures by Karl Sims Inspired a generation of Soft Alife developers in the 1990s-2000s

66. Karl Sims: Evolving Virtual Creatures

67. Early exemplar: Karl Sims’ Evolving Virtual Creatures (1991-4) State of the art of “Soft” Artificial Life

68. The Dawn of “Wet” ALife Protocells (Monnard, Rasmussen, Bedau et al)

69. Micelle Simulation Exploring Life’s Origins Project (Harvard)

70. Micelle Division

71. Real Biology in Action: Ribosomes

72. Visit to FLiNT: Fundamental Living Technology Laboratory University of Southern Denmark, Odense

79. Prebiotic Chemistry Fellermann (FLiNT, Univ Southern Denmark)

80. Models of Prebiotic Chemistry Monnard: Complexification & Formation of a Protocell

81. Mesoscale Molecular Simulation Fellermann: Formation of Simulated Membranes

82. Million Atom Satellite Tobacco Mosaic Virus simulation (NAMD and VMD, University of Illinois Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group

83. Enter the EvoGrid Could Artificial Life arise spontaneously from Artificial Non-Life and could this shed light on the Origins of Life from Non-Life? New Book: Divine Action and Natural Selection Gordon: Hoyle’s Challenge Damer: The God Detector

84. The Vision: EvoGrid The Movie A Thought Experiment - Storyboards

85. EvoGrid The Movie

86. Farther Future Vision of the EvoGrid Projecting life into the Solar System

87. Could we Artificially Evolve Freeman Dyson’s Trees?

88. Fanciful Concepts of Dyson Trees

89. Near Earth Objects: Threat or Future of Life in the Solar System?

90. Design for a human mission to a NEO

92. EvoGrid the Movie: The Asteroid Eaters

93. EvoGrid the Movie: The Asteroid Eaters

94. Building the EvoGrid Variants

95. Building the EvoGrid Ratcheting up the Complexity

96. Building the EvoGrid Conceptual architecture

101. EvoGrid Prototype 2009 bond formation in GROMACS

102. EvoGrid Prototype 2009 movie

103. Final Question: Is digital technology based on the Von Neumann architecture up to the task of the EvoGrid or any substantial bio-inspired computing as suggested by visions of the Singularity? Answer: Probably not, but it is worth a try (get ready to work for decades) Or: do we need to start thinking about Non-Von Neumann digital spaces as Von Neumann did 60 years ago?

104. Conventional vs Natural Computation Systemic Computer model by Peter J. Bentley, UCL, Digital Biology Group

105. Non-living natural world supports a massive number of parallel interactions but they are finite, bounded

106. Living natural world supports infinitely repeatable computations in a massively parallel fashion

107. Can this kind of machine do that? Definitely not Low level approximations (overhead) How about a lot of these? Perhaps… for the equivalent of a small volume of aqueous chemicals

108. You need this…. to originate and evolve complex life (and civilization) Penny Boston, CONTACT Conference 2009, NASA Ames

114. Resources and Acknowledgements Project EvoGrid at: http:// www.evogrid.org Project Biota & Podcast at: http:// www.biota.org DigitalSpace 3D simulations and all (open) source code at: http://www.digitalspace.com We would also like to thank NASA and many others for funding support for this work. Other acknowledgements include: Dr. Richard Gordon at the University of Manitoba, Tom Barbalet, DM3D Studios, Peter Newman, Ryan Norkus, SMARTLab, Peter Bentley, University College London, FLiNT, Exploring Life’s Origins Project, Scientific American Frontiers, DigiBarn Computer Museum, The Shelby White and Leon Levy Archives Center, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, USA, and S. Gross.

115. Closing Thought