Electrochemistry, Emergent Patterns, and Inorganic Intelligent Response

With rapid advancements made in computer technology, it is hard to imagine information processing without some form of digital system design. However, a look back at biological systems reveals that complex animate materials, which operate far from equilibrium, exhibit sensory responses to the environment through emergent patterns. An appraisal of the emerging theoretical field of pattern formation in nonlinear dynamical systems hints at the possibility of using transient dynamics and attractors in physical systems to realize the formalization of information processing. This chapter is a discussion of a new form of information processing, one inspired by the pattern formation in complex systems such as the brain and materialized through electrochemistry. The experimental platform for realizing this type of information processing is discussed through the example of electrodissolution dynamics of nickel in sulfuric acid electrolyte, where the anodic current responds to three‐dimensional changes in the electrolyte and surface conditions, giving rise to a multitude of spatiotemporal patterns. In such a system, distinct changes in the evolution of dynamics can be observed as the result of application of particular perturbations, and the pattern of these responses can be related as a cognitive response to the inputs provided to the system.