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Supercomputer Simulates Human Visual System

An anonymous reader writes "What cool things can be done with the 100,000+ cores of the first petaflop supercomputer, the Roadrunner, that were impossible to do before? Because our brain is massively parallel, with a relatively small amount of communication over long distances, and is made of unreliable, imprecise components, it's quite easy to simulate large chunks of it on supercomputers. The Roadrunner has been up only for about a week, and researchers from Los Alamos National Lab are already reporting inaugural simulations of the human visual system, aiming to produce a machine that can see and interpret as well as a human. After examining the results, the researchers 'believe they can study in real time the entire human visual cortex.' How long until we can simulate the entire brain?"

17 of 244 comments (clear)

  1. Just one word... by KGIII · · Score: 2, Funny

    Impessive.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    1. Re:Just one word... by SupplyMission · · Score: 5, Funny

      One word? That makes your spelling error rate 100%.

    2. Re:Just one word... by KGIII · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's only 10% lower than my math error rate.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  2. Interesting pictures, but... by RingDev · · Score: 3, Funny

    Who the hell left colored drop lights laying all over the server room!?

    -Rick

    --
    "Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
  3. Oh, for a second there.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I thought that supermodels stimulate the human visual system.

  4. Re:Ghost in the supercomputer by owlnation · · Score: 5, Funny

    And when this simulation claims to be conscious, what do we make of that?
    Simple. We make whatever it tells us to make. Or else.
  5. Let's link thousands of these simulations together by Daimanta · · Score: 3, Funny

    And we should call it Skeyenet.

    --
    Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
  6. Re:The Last Step For Ubiquitous Robotics? by notgm · · Score: 2, Funny

    output:

    why does christopher lambert show up in all of these historical pictures?

  7. Re:Ghost in the supercomputer by sgt+scrub · · Score: 2, Funny

    ask if it likes boobies.

    --
    Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
  8. Re:New goal... by spun · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dude, calm down. I wasn't dissing humanity, by mentioning that mantis shrimp have better vision, okay?

    "Hew-mans! Hew-mans! Hew-mans! we're number one! we're number one!"

    Feel better now?

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  9. Re:New goal... by spun · · Score: 4, Funny
    Christ on a fucking pogo stick, another one? What's with people who can't admit that maybe, just maybe, humans aren't the best at everything?

    Mantis shrimp don't have a blind spot, because their eyes aren't like the stupid human eyes where the optic nerve attaches to the front! Nyah nyah nyah!

    Here's the quote I was referring too:

    The visual information leaving the retina seems to be processed into numerous parallel data streams leading into the central nervous system, greatly reducing the analytical requirements at higher levels. As far as I know, there is only a single data stream per eye in human vision. It may be transmitted in parallel, but there is only one image created for each eye. Not so for the vastly superior mantis shrimp. We have trinocular vision in each eye, so suck it, monkey boy!

    I wouldn't, I mean, a mantis shrimp would never consider trading my, I mean his superior eyes for your puny human ones!
    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  10. Re:New goal... by CodeBuster · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yes. Thank you for your cooperation.

  11. Re:New goal... by blair1q · · Score: 3, Funny

    They're also very tasty.

    Can't help you on the question of their visual ability. Though I'm pretty sure they didn't see the net until it was too late.

    I guess I get to really well-stocked sushi bars more often than really well-stocked aquariums.

  12. Re:Oh, this is a fine how do you do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Clearly, you are also a Twitter sockpuppet sneakily promoting your sockpuppet's parent post which sneakily demoted its sockpuppet's parent post. Well, it will not work, I say. A pox on you!

  13. Re:New goal... by spun · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is there any non-delicious shrimp?

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  14. Re:New goal... by spun · · Score: 3, Funny

    Focal planes? Bah! What do we need with focal planes when we have, essentially, tens of thousands of pinhole cameras and eyes divided into three separate areas. Compared to your fovea, we have multiple bands of high res areas stretching across the middle of our eye! Can you see circularly polarized light? Why, an octopus has better eyesight than a human!

    Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go stun a herring.

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  15. Singularity by CODiNE · · Score: 3, Funny

    Heh... what if they finally simulate a human brain and... he's just a normal guy. "Design a better computer for us B.O.B." "Uhhh... I don't even like computers." Or what if it turns out to be stupid? Make it 100x faster and it's just STUPID FAST. :)

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    Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz