In early 2017, I helped to organize a 2 day workshop called ‘Proto-computation and Proto-life’ alongside my colleagues Masashi Aono and Betul Kacar. We brought together over a dozen researchers from around the world to discuss various ways in which natural and engineered materials are capable of ‘processing’ stimuli about their environments. It was a fascinating and refreshing series of lectures, and I’m so very grateful for the time and effort that all of our attendees shared with us!

More information about our workshop can be found here:

https://nai.nasa.gov/articles/2017/3/6/proto-computation-and-proto-life-workshop/