For example, one team of researchers has built a simple reservoir computer out of a bucket of water. They demonstrated that, after stimulating the water with mechanical probes, they could train a camera watching the water's surface to read the distinctive ripple patterns that formed. They then worked out the calculation that linked the probe movements with the ripple pattern, and then used it to perform some simple logical operations. Fundamentally, the water itself was transforming the input from the probes into a useful output –- and that is the great insight.

The latest chip in the iPhone 7 has 3.3 billion transistors packed into a piece of silicon around the size of a small coin. But the trend for smaller, increasingly powerful computers could be coming to an end. Silicon-based chips are rapidly reaching a point at which the laws of physics prevent them being any smaller. There are also some important limitations to what silicon-based devices can do that mean there is a strong argument for looking at other ways to power computers. Perhaps the most well-known alternative researchers are looking at is quantum computers, which manipulate the properties of the chips in a different way to traditional digital machines.

It might seem like an idea out of science fiction, but the possibility of using potentially any material as a computer could soon become a reality. These alternative materials could be even better for developing artificial intelligence than existing computers. Some believe such AI could eventually have human-like intelligence and reasoning. Experts Mark Douthwaite, a PhD Candidate in High Integrity Systems Engineering, and Matt Dale, a PhD Student in Non-Standard Computation, both from the University of York, explain how this works in an article for The Conversation. It might seem like an idea out of science fiction, b ut the possibility of using potentially any materia l as a computer could soon become a reality.