Slashdot Mirror
IBM Working on Brain-Rivaling Computer
Obdurate writes "The first supercomputers to approach and even surpass the processing power
of the human brain are to be built by IBM, under a $184M contract
announced by the US Government yesterday.
ASCI Purple and Blue Gene/L will be the fastest and most powerful machines built,
with a combined capacity equal to the 500 best of todays computers."
So I'd argue that to truly be as powerful as the human brain, you would need 100 petaflops of 1-2 input flops, with at least a petabyte tape system.
I love it when people try to simplify the human brain and what it is. Especially when they have no idea how it works, or understands how it does what it does. You know absolutely nothing. Nobody else does either.
First off, you can't compare a brain to a computer. On any level. The brain achieves consciousness. And consciousness is something that you'll never see a computer achieve. Ever.
Why? Because nobody understands what consciousness is. Not from a scientific perspective. There are many philosophical definitions, but nothing quanitified by science. It is an intangible that science cannot quantify and measure.
And science does not understand how the brain is able to achieve consciousness... or if the brain is responsible for producing consciousness to begin with. The most advanced brain specialists in the world still have no clue about the brain... aside from its physics and its parts. Which we have discovered tell us very very little about consciousness itself. Hell, anybody can look at something and identify its parts. But we still have no idea how it works.
I'll believe all this bullshit when I see someone actually create an organic, conscious brain from scratch. Until then, its all moot.
This is a huge waste of money. How the hell can the US fund this bullshit instead of helping real, living, breathing people? Stop spending billions trying to reproduce the brain, and start helping people who actually have brains.