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Artificial Synapse Created For Synthetic Brain

Posted by timothy on from the let's-vote-these-amateur-clowns-out-of-office dept.

Zothecula writes "It's probably still going to be a while before autonomous, self-aware androids are wandering amongst us. That scenario has come a little closer to reality, however, with researchers from the University of Southern California having created a functioning synapse circuit using carbon nanotubes. An artificial version of the connections that allow electrical impulses to pass between neurons in our brains, the circuit could someday be one component of a synthetic brain."

8 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. Whatever you say by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's probably still going to be a while before autonomous, self-aware androids are wandering amongst us.

    Sure, that's what they'd like us to believe, anyway...

    (crap - forgot to post this anonymously!)

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    1. Re:Whatever you say by camperslo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The Androids would most likely be upset with software patents, a stifling inhuman rights abuse.

  2. Self-assembly, too? by macraig · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If these so-called synapses can't spontaneously self-assemble and inter-connect, they still have a LOT of work to do to achieve real AI. A more likely practical use for this was mentioned in another article about it: repairing damaged tissue in human brains (or perhaps deliberately "re-wire" portions to alter function).

    1. Re:Self-assembly, too? by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Interesting

      For that it would need to be able to interface with plain old mark one grey matter, and there's nothing (wishes side) in the article to suggest that it can.

      Until it can do that, why is this any better than simply emulating the connections with software?

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  3. But can it... by MrQuacker · · Score: 3, Insightful
    FTA:In other words, it can take in the type of impulses generated by real neurons, and send them on in a form that could be further processed by other neurons

    But does this mean that they have discovered a way to "plug in" a computer to a brain? Can these be used as an adapter to "talk" with neurons?

  4. Article could use a fact-checker by interactive_civilian · · Score: 3, Informative

    From TFA:

    "This is a necessary first step in the process," said Parker. "We wanted to answer the question: Can you build a circuit that would act like a neuron? The next step is even more complex. How can we build structures out of these circuits that mimic the neuron, and eventually the function of the brain, which has 100 billion neurons and 10,000 synapses?"

    Uhhh... That number of synapses is off by about 10 orders of magnitude. I assume the number of synapses was meant to be a "per neuron" number, but that's a pretty glaring thing to leave out of that sentence. :-/

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  5. Why do robot brains need synapses? by MMC+Monster · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Just because biological brains have synapses, do computer brains need them as well?

    Serious question. I don't know where AI is or where it's taking us.

    This is more useful to study human neurology.

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    1. Re:Why do robot brains need synapses? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ust because biological brains have synapses, do computer brains need them as well?

      Serious question. I don't know where AI is or where it's taking us.

      The answer to the question is simply: "nobody knows". Is the role of the synapse simply to connect one cell to another, like a piece of wire in a circuit, or does it have some deeper functional role? Its behaviour is certainly far more complex than the OP suggests. My money is on the current paradigm (the brain as a computer) being about as completely and utterly wrong as the previous paradigm (the brain as a clock-work mechanical machine) was.