"biocomputer" - Word of the Day from the OED

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biocomputer, n.

DRAFT ENTRY Sept. 2002

Brit. /b()kmpjut/, U.S. /bakmpjudr/  [< BIO- + COMPUTER n.] 

    1. A brain, esp. a human one, regarded as a computer. Also (in extended use): the mind, an organism as a whole, or an ecosystem understood in such a way.

1968 J. C. LILLY Programming & Metaprogramming in Human Biocomputer 3/2 The chemical agent lysergic acid di-ethylamide (LSD-25) has been shown..to cause large changes in the modes of functioning of the human biocomputer. 1968 Jrnl. Acoustical Soc. Amer. 43 1421/1 These multiple feedback loops through the human and dolphin biocomputers..established the limits for the results observed in these experiments. 1984 Sales & Marketing Managem. (Nexis) 10 Sept. 66 One has to have an understanding of the cybernetic nature of the brain. At the unconscious level, it is a goal-seeking, information processing biocomputer, operating by exactly the same principles as an electronic computer. 1993 TransWorld Skateboarding Sept. 25 (advt.) Introduction of cyberpunk signals into human biocomputer may result in memetic reprogramming..and shock to the system. 1998 K. ESHUN More Brilliant than Sun viii. 145 Caught up in the chain reaction of events that calls itself history, metafoolishness hips you to how the human biocomputer metaprograms itself.

    2. Biol. and Computing. A computing device exploiting the chemical properties of biological molecules, esp. of DNA; a chemical procedure used for the same ends; a (hypothetical) computer based on components and circuits formed from biological molecules or structures. Cf. BIOCHIP n., *biocircuit s.v. BIO-.

1981 Electronics 8 Sept. 49/1 (heading) A biocomputer. 1982 Computerworld (Nexis) 11 Jan. ID1 Today, with recombinant-DNA splicing and genetic editing techniques, we know how to build the basic building blocks for possible future bio-computers. We have yet to learn how to assemble many such bio-circuits and properly interconnect them to form computers. 1988 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 23 Aug. 34/3 Eight Japanese companies recently formed a joint study venture.to develop a biochip as ‘the first step towards realising a biocomputer’, they said. 2000 Wired Jan. 154/2 Ever more powerful computers are being pursued on many frontsnot just massively parallel versions of the electronic computers we have today, but biocomputers that adopt the fluid computational strategies of nature, and quantum computers that exploit the subtleties of subatomic physics.

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