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The Birth of Wetware
Forget what you may have heard about neural networks in software. This startup is making a computer with living neurons.

what if we told you there's a way to take a shortcut past the constraints of electronic computing and hold unimaginable processing power at your fingertips? You can do all of that and more with the Wetware CPU... at least as far as Science Fiction is concerned.

Wetware refers to a biological system. A Wetware CPU is the brain and nervous system of living beingsnote used to power non-organic machinery. In speculative fiction settings, particularly those where true artificial intelligence either doesn't exist or is shunned, it's sometimes the case that the brains of living beings, sapient or not, will be incorporated into machines and used for processing or command and control purposes. It varies whether the rest of bodies are retained, or how willing the beings in question are. When used on unwilling subjects, it may be an element of Sci-Fi Horror, particularly Body Horror or And I Must Scream scenarios.



Related to Brain in a Jar, Man in the Machine, and Cyborg Helmsman. Compare Brain–Computer Interface, Living Battery, Unwilling Roboticisation, and Human Resources. Contrast Brain Uploading, where instead of using human "wetware" to run machine software, you use machine hardware to run human "software". Also contrast Wetware Body, where a machine controls an organic body instead of the other way around. Finally, also contrast Tinman Typist, where a machine occupies the workstation of a human instead of the latter being wired into where a machine should be.