What if I told you there’s a laboratory in Switzerland where scientists are building computers from living human neurons?   Sounds like science fiction, right? But it’s happening right now, and the energy crisis driving this research is about to affect every small business owner’s cloud computing bills.   In this episode, Noel, Graham, and Mauven explore FinalSpark’s revolutionary biocomputing platform. This Swiss company has created the Neuroplatform, a system using approximately 160,000 living human neurons to perform computational tasks. Their goal?   Solving the massive energy consumption problem created by artificial intelligence and modern data centres.   Your brain runs on 20 watts of power. Current AI data centres consume megawatts.   FinalSpark claims their biological processors could use a million times less energy than traditional computing. That’s not incremental improvement – that’s fundamental transformation.   But here’s the catch: this technology is still early, really early. So why should small business owners care about laboratory experiments with brain cells?   Because the energy costs driving this research are already affecting your Azure bills, your SaaS subscriptions, and your cloud hosting fees. And understanding where technology is heading helps you make better decisions about where to invest your limited resources.   What You’ll Learn Why energy consumption in computing matters to small businesses right now How FinalSpark’s biocomputing platform actually works (in terms that won’t require a neuroscience degree) The realistic timeline for when this technology might affect your business What small businesses should actually do about emerging technologies The security implications nobody’s talking about yet The uncomfortable ethical questions around growing human neurons for computation   Key Quotes   Noel Bradford:“Training a single large AI model produces the same carbon emissions as five cars create during their entire lifetime. And that statistic is from 2019. Modern models like GPT-4 produce 50 to 100 times more emissions than that.”   Graham Falkner:“So naturally they thought, you know what, let’s just use actual neurons instead. Because that’s a perfectly reasonable next step when your silicon experiments don’t work.”   Mauven MacLeod:“Bloody hell. Today’s topic just got properly mental.”   Noel Bradford on timeline:“In the next 12 months, nothing. Ignore biocomputing entirely. Focus on the security basics most businesses are probably still getting wrong.”   On security implications:“How do you secure a computer made from living cells? Do you need to understand neuroscience to exploit vulnerabilities in bioprocessors? If someone breaches a living computer system, is it a cyber attack or biological warfare?”   About FinalSpark Founded by: Dr. Martin Kutter and Dr. Fred Jordan Location: Vevey, Switzerland Previous company: Alpvision (anti-counterfeiting specialists) Current project: The Neuroplatform   Research credentials: Published peer-reviewed research that reached the top 1% of most-read articles in Frontiers journal Providing free access to 10 universities worldwide (36 applications received) Created APIs and documentation for remote access Built Discord community with 1,200+ members discussing biocomputing Participating universities: University of Michigan Free University of Berlin University of Exeter Lancaster University Leipzig University University of York Oxford Brookes University University of Bath University of Bristol Université Côte d’Azur (France) University of Tokyo Key Facts from the Episode   Energy consumption statistics: Data centres consumed 1.5% of global electricity as of 2024 Projected to reach 3% by 2030 AI is accelerating growth exponentially Meta, Google, and OpenAI are talking about building nuclear power stations   The biocomputing advantage: Human brain runs on 20 watts Modern AI data centres use megawatts (millions of watts) FinalSpark claims mill