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Memristor Minds, the Future of Artificial Intelligence
godlessgambler writes "Within the past couple of years, memristors have morphed from obscure jargon into one of the hottest properties in physics. They've not only been made, but their unique capabilities might revolutionize consumer electronics. More than that, though, along with completing the jigsaw of electronics, they might solve the puzzle of how nature makes that most delicate and powerful of computers — the brain."
What the hell is a memristor, you ask?
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
Probably nothing significant, seeing as you can emulate exactly what a digital memristor does with 6 transistors and some electricity always applied. Memristors in CPU/logic would not be viable because of their low wear cycles and very high latencies. It would make for some nice multi-terabyte sized USB sticks though.
As for its analog uses, Skynet comes to mind...
What was happening was this: in its pure state of repeating units of one titanium and two oxygen atoms, titanium dioxide is a semiconductor. Heat the material, though, and some of the oxygen is driven out of the structure, leaving electrically charged bubbles that make the material behave like a metal.
The memristor they've created depends on the movement of oxygen atoms to produce the memristor-like electrical behavior. Purely electrical components such as resistors, capacitors, inductors, and transistors only rely on the movement of electrons and holes to produce their electrical behavior. Why is this important? The chemical memristor is an order of magnitude slower than the theoretical electrical equivalent, which no one has been able to invent yet.
I think the memristor they've created is a great piece of technology and will certainly prove useful. However, it is like calling a rechargeable chemical battery a capacitor. While both are useful things, only one is fast enough for high speed electronics design for applications like the RAM they mentioned. On the other hand, a chemical memristor could be a flash memory killer if they can get the cost down (which I doubt to happen any time soon).
Probably nothing significant, seeing as you can emulate exactly what a digital memristor does with 6 transistors
Exactly right.
;)
It's not a hardware breakthrough that'll create a true AI - it's an algorithm breakthrough that's required. Faster computers might be nice - but it'll always comes down to the algorithm.
And actually the sooner we create Skynet - the better the chance we have to beat it. Because if we wait too long - that super fast hardware it will be running will could make it too hard to beat.
No. This is a lot of gross overexageration.
Our computers are Turing-complete. Point me to something that is missing in this before I get excited. This new component may have great applications, but it will "only" replace some existing components and functions. It is great to have it but it is nothing essentially missing.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
AI needs new algorithms to progress. Electronics will not change the way we program computers. They are already Turing complete, a new component adds nothing to the realm of what a device can compute. Expect a revolution in electronics, but IT people will not see a single difference (except maybe a slight performance improvement)
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
The amazing thing is that we consider individual brains to be "intelligent" when it seems pretty clear we're only intelligent as part of a social network. None of us are able to live alone, work alone, think alone. The concept of "self" is largely a deceit designed to make us more competitive, but it does not reflect reality.
So how on earth can a computer be "intelligent" until it can take part in human society, with the same motivations and incentives: collect power, knowledge, information, friends, armies, territories, children...
Artificial intelligence already exists and it's called the Internet: it's a technology that amplifies our existing collective intelligence, by letting us connect to more people, faster, cheaper, than ever before.
The idea that computers can become intelligent independently and in parallel with this real global AI is insane, and it has always been. Computers are already part of our AI.
Actually, the telegraph was already a global AI tool.
But, whatever, boys with toys...
My blog
Transistors are naturally analog, it's only that we force them to be digital. If we are prepared to accept more probabilistic outputs then there are massive gains to be had http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/02/08/rice.university.pcmos/. Work is being done with analog computing too.
I think memristors will be complimentary to existing rather than a revolution on their own yet analog transistors would have George Boole flip-flopping between orientations in his grave.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
Memristors in CPU/logic would not be viable because of their low wear cycles and very high latencies.
That's a current manufacturing limitation, not something inherent to what a memristor is. Had these been discovered much sooner, we would be much better at manufacturing them and they probably would have made a significant impact.
This talks about neuronal replacement. It looks like your brain may have a write limit, it just automatically replaces worn out bits.
"Repeat after me" is really annoying. If you're going to be that irritating you'd better have some pretty strong evidence to back yourself up. Where is it?
Ah yes, the "our computers are incredibly powerful and we've tried it and it didn't work so the whole class of solutions is obviously ruled out" argument.
Before you make (extremely condescending) statements that something is impossible, you should at least make sure you qualify your terms properly.
"I think it's very unlikely that using current neural network algorithms on computers with current or near future capacities will produce a strong AI" would be a good start.
We certainly do not know what the limits of "neural networks" (as a general class of algorithms) are. We also don't have anything like the computing power to properly simulate a neural network with a capacity where we'd expect to see "intelligence."
You might be correct. Then again, you may well not be. Even if you are, the only people who will listen to posts like yours are people who already agree with you.
Citation.
See especially points
6 - No hardware/software distinction can be made with respect to the brain or mind,
7 - Synapses are far more complex than electrical logic gates,
10 - Brains have bodies,
and the bonus - The brain is much, much bigger than any [current] computer.
It's past time for this idea to die.
Your brain is not a computer.