Out of the Blue
March 7, 2008 9:05 AM Subscribe
Out of the Blue: Can a thinking, remembering, decision-making, biologically accurate brain be built from a supercomputer? IBM seems to think so.
The Blue Brain project is now at a crucial juncture. The first phase of the project—"the feasibility phase"—is coming to a close. The skeptics, for the most part, have been proven wrong. It took less than two years for the Blue Brain supercomputer to accurately simulate a neocortical column, which is a tiny slice of brain containing approximately 10,000 neurons, with about 30 million synaptic connections between them. "The column has been built and it runs," Markram says. "Now we just have to scale it up." Blue Brain scientists are confident that, at some point in the next few years, they will be able to start simulating an entire brain. "If we build this brain right, it will do everything," Markram says. I ask him if that includes selfconsciousness: Is it really possible to put a ghost into a machine? "When I say everything, I mean everything," he says, and a mischievous smile spreads across his face.
This post was deleted for the following reason: Fatal flaw: they should have tried to model an elephant's brain. -- cortex
A brain that does everything must also forget.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 9:20 AM on March 7, 2008
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 9:20 AM on March 7, 2008
I look forward to the day when man can say, "Hey," and the giant brain computer can say, "Hey, man," and then man can be like, "What's up," and then the giant brain computer'll be all "Not much."
posted by danb at 9:27 AM on March 7, 2008
posted by danb at 9:27 AM on March 7, 2008
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posted by DU at 9:09 AM on March 7, 2008