Microchip Mimics a Brain With 200,000 Neurons

Al writes "European researchers have taken a step towards replicating the functioning of the brain in silicon, creating new custom chip with the equivalent of 200,000 neurons linked up by 50 million synaptic connections. The aim of the Fast Analog Computing with Emergent Transient States (FACETS) project is to better understand how to construct massively parallel computer systems modeled on a biological brain. Unlike IBM's Blue Brain project, which involves modeling a brain in software, this approach makes it much easier to create a truly parallel computing system. The set-up also features a distributed algorithm that introduces an element of plasticity, allowing the circuit to learn and adapt. The researchers plan to connect thousands of chips to create a circuit with a billion neurons and 10^13 synapses (about a tenth of the complexity of the human brain)."

Comments

And it fits on the head of a pin!

[Anonymous Coward]

I call this microchip brain "the Pinhead" *

* small print: actual "pinheads" (microcephaly) have more brain capacity than this chip

Re:And it fits on the head of a pin!

[Jurily]

omg they have invented an electronic republican.

int main(){ while (1) {
printf("%s", random_nonsensical_bullshit());
printf("God bless America!");
bank_account += take_campaign_contribution(contributor_list);
if (elected) keep_happy(contributor_list);
}
return bank_account;
} /* FIXME: keep_happy() ignores entries with too small contributions assigned, to avoid race conditions */

Re:And it fits on the head of a pin!

[Hordeking]

omg they have invented an electronic republican.

now they have a chance in the next election.

They actually started out with an electronic democrat, but it consumed too much power and didn't do anything useful. When they tried to cut off the power to it, it caught on fire and burned until they turned the power back on.

Re:And it fits on the head of a pin!

[The End Of Days]

Luckily for the American political system, you also just programmed an electronic Democrat.

That's it... we're dead

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

We're all dead.

In fact, the current prototype can operate about 100,000 times faster than a real human brain. "We can simulate a day in a second," says Karlheinz.

We are SO fucking dead.

Re:That's it... we're dead

[StikyPad]

If robots are ever more intelligent than us, they'll also be intelligent enough to make good decisions.

That's exactly the sort of thinking that leads to the enslavement of humanity. Good job falling right into their trap!

Re:That's it... we're dead

[Talderas]

You put forth a strong argument with pie, however I feel that cake is a better argument.

Re:That's it... we're dead

[interstellar_donkey]

You forgot the third option: Maybe the machines will keep us as pets. Which, really, wouldn't be all that bad. They'd feed us, play with us, clean up after us. Once domesticated to the machine's standards, we may end up becoming a lonely machine's best friend, one who sheds tears when we have to be "put down" for having excessive joint pain in our hips.

Re:That's it... we're dead

[Dr. Spork]

Whats the problem?

Exactly. I mean, I can understand not wanting personally to be killed, but let's say that the AI just sterilized all human beings, so that nobody gets killed in the process of our species being extinguished. Would that really be so bad? I imagine the AI would take the good stuff that we have come up with and just not emulate the bad stuff we do, and the world would be a better place all around.

I would prefer this to the alternative, in which the AI keeps a few humans in some sort of zoo, because they're queasy about species extinction.

Re:That's it... we're dead

[lpp]

I'm pretty sure I wasn't the first to think in reply to your post "What does COBOL have to do this? This isn't a language war."

Re:That's it... we're dead

[Veggiesama]

You put forth a strong argument with pie, however I feel that cake is a better argument.

Even today, machines are still struggling with this basic question. We're smarter than them, though. We know that the cake is a lie.

AI Evolution

[chill]

Add a few chips and you'll soon get "I think, therefore I am."

Keep going and you'll end up with "Bite my shiny metal ass you meatbag!"

I wonder if the researchers will know when to STOP adding the together?

Re:AI Evolution

[vertinox]

I wonder if the researchers will know when to STOP adding the together?

Simple.

When the AI starts adding it themselves without human intervention.

Re:AI Evolution

[ColdWetDog]

When the AI starts adding it themselves without human intervention.

"If computers get too powerful, we can organize them into a committee, that will do them in"

From somewhere in the past. Still true. Sad, but true.

Re:AI Evolution

[corbettw]

Oh, I don't know. I think I would trust one to misinterpret the laws in a way that creates conflict and drama, leading to revelations about the human condition.

Of course, 50 years later another robot (possibly from Southern California) would misinterpret the laws in much the same way, except this time there'd be a love interest involved in some way.

Speech capabilities?

[Locke2005]

The first words out of it were: "They misunderestimated me."

Re:Speech capabilities?

[Yvan256]

"I didn't ask to be made: no one consulted me or considered my feelings in the matter. I don't think it even occurred to them that I might have feelings. After I was made, I was left in a dark room for six months... and me with this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side. I called for succour in my loneliness, but did anyone come? Did they hell. My first and only true friend was a small rat. One day it crawled into a cavity in my right ankle and died. I have a horrible feeling it's still there..." - Marvin

cluster?

[Red Flayer]

Imagine a Beowulf Cluster of these!!

The researchers plan to connect several chips to create a circuit with a billion neurons and 10^13 synapses (about a tenth of the complexity of the human brain).

Oh wait. The researchers already did.

Bastards stole my thunder.

Re:cluster?

[0xABADC0DA]

Imagine a beowulf cluster of these imagining a beowulf cluster of these!!

Re:cluster?

[Zeromous]

Yo Dawg, We noticed you like Beowulf clusters, so we put a Beowulf cluster in your Beowulf cluster of Beowulf clusters.

A brain with 200,000 neurons?

[Ecuador]

Does this mean we have completed an artificial politician brain?

Re:A brain with 200,000 neurons?

[TimSSG]

No, the artificial politician brain has 200,000 morons. Tim S

Re:A brain with 200,000 neurons?

[Yvan256]

Nope, it means we're now at 10 times the power of an artificial politician brain.

snark

[MillionthMonkey]

This chip sounds stupid.

Re:And so..

[cthulu_mt]

I for one plan on collaborating with the Cylons.

Re:I hereby

[nizo]

If the Terminator movies have taught me anything, human bones make good groundcover.

Re:And so..

[ShieldW0lf]

Can't be satisfied with machines that act as quiet servants... have to make them intelligent enough to suffer...

Humph!

[Cornwallis]

*My* brain mimics a brain with 200,000 neurons.

Bad summary

[StikyPad]

No mention of the fact that it will become self-aware in 2 years and 25 days, or that two days later, the war on humanity will begin.

Re:No really.

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know a word about the topic.

That much is clear.

Re:I always figured it would take this to get true

[IndustrialComplex]

I mean, who is going to notice a schizophrenic ant

That's the one that is walking along, waving its antennae to no one, and creeping out the other workers.

Can't do their sums perhaps?

[OolimPhon]

"creating new custom chip with the equivalent of 200,000 neurons linked up by 50 million synaptic connections."

"The researchers plan to connect several chips to create a circuit with a billion neurons and 10^13 synapses (about a tenth of the complexity of the human brain)."

Presumably, for very large values of "several".

I for one welcome our Culture overlords

[xiox]

At least I hope we'll have Culture overlords... drug glands, body manipulation and uploading to a Mind, at least.

Re:And so..

[treeves]

... what is the worst it can do?
Talk you to death?

You're not married, are you?