[guiraldelli]

I have worked with it [1], in particular with a special class of it, MP (Metabolic P).

In a nutshell, it is a theoretical model inspired by biology, but which produces many interesting results, as super-Turing computational power.

I am not sure whether it is still, but the reference on web for the subject was http://ppage.psystems.eu/ .

Besides Păun, other big names in the topic are Perez-Jimenez, Gheorghe and Manca.

As far as I am concerned, there are little practical application of it, even though the theoretical potential is considerable.

I tried to focus on more day-to-day application of MP [2], and I managed to get some nice results, but further advance was limited by external forces.

Do I recommend to buy an introductory book on the subject? No, mostly because I think the material online from the people I mentioned above, plus their publication, is more than enough to acquire the knowledge. Besides, I bet the book is published by Elsevier, which usually mean it is a simple collection of papers, except the fact I am not fan of that publishing house.

If you have any more direct question, feel free to contact me—hopefully I can be of some help.

But, I have the impression that membrane computing is still a very academic topic disconnected from the engineering world.

If it is what you like, then it might satisfy you. :)

[1]: https://ricardo.guiraldelli.com/research.html#doctorate

[2]: https://ricardo.guiraldelli.com/research.html#available-mate...

[jsenn]

This is interesting stuff--thanks for writing it out.

> ...super-Turing computational power.

Could you expand on this? The Wikipedia page claims that the deterministic version can be efficiently simulated by a Turing machine.

The Wikipedia page and page you linked claim that NP problems can be solved in linear time. It does point out the caveat that it would require exponential space, but I think even then something's being swept under the rug. Namely, it assumes that an exponential number of basic computational steps can be performed in a single "time step". In a physical cell (and presumably any other instantiation of this model in the real world), repeated application of a rule like a -> aa would require an exponentially-increasing expenditure of energy, which isn't being taken into account in the analysis.

[fdupress]

Space might be a good enough approximation of energy to not bother?

[netfortius]

Thank you! Very informational and kind of you to offer further assistance. I'm way too uneducated in this space, for now, to even assume I could produce pertinent questions.