Trinary mental computing
Guosong Liu, a neuroscientist at the Picower Center for Learning and Memory at MIT, has discovered that neurons communicate their electrical signals in trinary code - using zeros, ones and minus ones. This allows additional interactions to occur during processing; two signals can add together or cancel each other out, or different pieces of information can link up or try to override one another. Whereas computers running on a binary system don’t ignore information, trinary "is an evolutionary advantage that’s unique to the brain." Some analysts predict that future hard/soft-ware will function using trinary systems, making everything known today obsolete within the next ten years.
Brain circuitry findings could shape computer design, MIT News Office.