Biocomputing on human neurons (Interview)

The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

Dr. Ewelina Kurtys is leading the way in biocomputing at FinalSpark where she is working on the next evolutionary leap for AI and neuron-powered computing. It’s a brave new world, just 10 years in the making. We discuss lab-grown human brain organoids connected to electrodes, the possibility to solve AI’s massive energy consumption challenge, post-silicon approach to computing, biological vs quantum physics and more.

Join the discussion

Changelog++ members get a bonus 2 minutes at the end of this episode and zero ads. Join today!

Sponsors:

• Depot – 10x faster builds? Yes please. Build faster. Waste less time. Accelerate Docker image builds, and GitHub Actions workflows. Easily integrate with your existing CI provider and dev workflows to save hours of build time.
• CodeRabbit – AI-native code reviews, built for the modern dev stack. — CodeRabbit is your always-on code reviewer—flagging hallucinations, surfacing smells, and enforcing standards, all without leaving your IDE or GitHub PRs. Trusted by top teams to ship better code, faster.
  Start free at CodeRabbit.ai
• Fly.io – The home of Changelog.com — Deploy your apps close to your users — global Anycast load-balancing, zero-configuration private networking, hardware isolation, and instant WireGuard VPN connections. Push-button deployments that scale to thousands of instances. Check out the speedrun to get started in minutes.

Featuring:

• Ewelina Kurtys – Website, LinkedIn
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
• Jerod Santo – GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

• FinalSpark

Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

فصول

1. This week on The Changelog (00:00:00)

2. Sponsor: Depot (00:01:06)

https://depot.dev

3. Start the show! (00:03:24)

4. Energy efficiency computing on neurons (00:05:33)

5. Neurons as logic gates (00:10:12)

6. Growing stem cells into brains (00:12:10)

7. How did you get here? (00:13:40)

8. How long have you been working on this problem? (00:21:13)

9. How does reading/writing data work? (00:26:28)

10. Is the process slow or fast? (00:27:56)

11. Sponsor: CodeRabbit (00:33:09)

https://www.coderabbit.ai

12. The role of dopamine and serotonin (00:35:48)

13. 10 years until useful. Why so hard? (00:36:48)

14. Have you tried to "ultrathink"? (00:38:42)

15. What industries are interested in this? (00:43:31)

16. What are they trying to do with it? (00:44:17)

17. When do the neurons unalive? (00:48:14)

18. Exotic uses vs general purpose (00:52:16)

19. Wrapping up (00:55:14)

20. Closing thoughts and stuff (00:55:42)