thequark

I feel computing in general needs a paradigm shift. We should rethink about what exactly is a computer and computation. All that we think of is bits and bytes but we dont challenge the basic assumptions. Why is that we should have a binary system? Okay some people may say that electronic circuits can work best if there are only two levels/states. But can we do the same thing using different technology may be optical computing???(that is only stuff that came to my mind) Why is necessary to have the same one CPU, input and output device??? Can we create an array of small size somethings with computation going on in each of them and they synchronize somehow so as to give a coherent, meaningful thing. Please dont think i am talking of many CHIPS (I like that word though) working together....