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Artificial Brain '10 Years Away'

Posted by samzenpus on from the batteries-not-included dept.

SpuriousLogic writes "A detailed, functional artificial human brain can be built within the next 10 years, a leading scientist has claimed. Henry Markram, director of the Blue Brain Project, has already built elements of a rat brain. He told the TED global conference in Oxford that a synthetic human brain would be of particular use finding treatments for mental illnesses. Around two billion people are thought to suffer some kind of brain impairment, he said. 'It is not impossible to build a human brain and we can do it in 10 years,' he said."

1 of 539 comments (clear)

  1. Re:don't believe it by siloko · · Score: 0, Troll

    If it doesn't [work], try to figure out why, tweak, and try again.

    I love your confidence. I can imagine a scenario where a computer can mimic resposes given certain stimuli and that this process becomes more sophisticated over time. However the guy quoted in the article mentions the usefulness of the model in diagnosing and treating mental illness, wtf!? So he's gonna build a functional model of a brain, program in society driven angst and a genetic propensity for outlier behaviour and then treat the artifical responses as source for diagnosis and treatment - well "hello Dr. Frankenstein!".

    He's also the head of the Blue Brain Project and as a Software Engineer who works in research I know when scientists get the opportunity to big up their project they don't hold back - competition for grants is strong . . . I'mn guessing his colleagues are slapping him on the back saying "10 years!? Nice one, well our projections suggest we'll have removed the fluff from the mouse by then . . ."

    I'm guessing consciousness is gonna be a tougher nut to crack than these guys suggest and without it any artificial brain is just a sophisticated lookup . . .