Spaun: a Large-Scale Functional Brain Model

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Spaun: a Large-Scale Functional Brain Model

Posted by Soulskill on Friday November 30, 2012 @05:20AM from the can-it-learn-to-program-my-vcr dept.

New submitter dj_tla writes "A team of Canadian researchers has created a state-of-the-art brain model that can see, remember, think about, and write numbers. The model has just been discussed in a Science article entitled 'A Large-Scale Model of the Functioning Brain.' There have been several popular press articles, and there are videos of the model in action. Nature quotes Eugene Izhikevich, chairman of Brain Corporation, as saying, 'Until now, the race was who could get a human-sized brain simulation running, regardless of what behaviors and functions such simulation exhibits. From now on, the race is more [about] who can get the most biological functions and animal-like behaviors. So far, Spaun is the winner.' (Full disclosure: I am a member of the team that created Spaun.)"

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How Long Until It Can Fit Into ..... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-30 05:31 · Score: 4, Funny

.... something the size of a human skull?
Just imagine how many people this could help!
1. Re:How Long Until It Can Fit Into ..... by einar.petersen · 2012-11-30 06:57 · Score: 1
  
  .... something the size of a human skull?
  Just imagine how many people this could help!
  Too bad you posted that like an Anonymous Coward - Too funny! You just made my day :)
  
  --
  MS, ALS, Aphasia ? http://globability.org - Me http://einarpetersen.com
Close... by tool462 · 2012-11-30 05:32 · Score: 4, Funny

It's not purely functional unless it's written in Haskell.
1. Re:Close... by gstoddart · 2012-11-30 05:50 · Score: 1
  
  By way of logic, would programming it in pure Haskell eliminate filthy thoughts?
  Why, are we worried about AIs committing venial sins or something?
  
  --
  Lost at C:>. Found at C.
2. Re:Close... by sp332 · 2012-11-30 06:10 · Score: 1
  
  If I make a robot that kills people, am I responsible for the deaths? If I make an AI that lusts after my neighbor's wife, am I responsible?
3. Re:Close... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-30 06:15 · Score: 1
  
  So you are saying Scheme was ruled out because if it learns to talk it will have a Lisp?
My God... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-30 05:32 · Score: 5, Interesting

The golden age of humanity will start soon. The last gasp of the fossil fuel powered consumer society is now. We will create a new model of society, with longer living people and an understanding of how life works at the cellular, and most importantly, mathematical level. The future is not space, it's synthetic biology.
1. Re:My God... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-30 07:39 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  When the moon is in the Seventh House
  And Jupiter aligns with Mars
  Then peace will guide the planets
  And love will steer the stars
  This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius
  Age of Aquarius
  Aquarius! Aquaaaaaarrrrriusssssss!
2. Re:My God... by arisvega · 2012-11-30 08:02 · Score: 1
  
  The golden age of humanity will start soon. [..] The future is not space, it's synthetic biology.
  The power of synthetic biology unleashed upon a society that is run on the administrative and economic protocols that apply now, will be a nightmare, not a golden age.
  You think you are going to be doing synthetic biology in your garage? For one, you will have to do exactly what the supersoldiers tell you to. How do you recon this amazing technology will reach you? Even if there comes to be such a thing as a technologically developed Elixir of Life, the Universe, and Everything, you think that people on top will just hand it over to you? Or that greed will be somehow magically rendered obsolete worldwide overnight?
  Awesome synthetic biology + current greed-driven model = even faster route *straight* to Hell
  
  --
  The three laws of thermodynamics:(1) You can't win. (2) You can't break even. (3) You can't even quit.
3. Re:My God... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-30 08:53 · Score: 1
  
  Or we revert to a dark age. My money is on dark age.
4. Re:My God... by carnivore302 · 2012-11-30 09:26 · Score: 1
  
  Have you been watching the 40 year old virgin too many times?
  
  --
  Please login to access my lawn
5. Re:My God... by wurp · 2012-11-30 09:32 · Score: 1
  
  WTF does this comment have to do with this story? Why is it +4 interesting?
6. Re:My God... by wurp · 2012-11-30 10:21 · Score: 1
  
  The comment was about understanding life, synthetic biology, an end to the use of fossil fuels, and health.
  The story has nothing to do with any of those.
  The story is only (extremely) tangentially even related to uploading...
Runs at 1/3600 real time by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-30 05:34 · Score: 5, Interesting

This simulation takes an hour to simulate one second of neural activity, but the researchers want to speed it up to real time. Why stop there? This brain would be much more interesting if it could simulate an hour of neural activity in one second.
Just a caution, though: make sure the physical arm it's connected to isn't within reach of any nuclear footballs.
1. Re:Runs at 1/3600 real time by dj_tla · 2012-11-30 06:15 · Score: 1
  
  We'd be happy with faster than real-time too! Baby steps.
2. Re: Runs at 1/3600 real time by MouseR · 2012-11-30 06:15 · Score: 1
  
  At that speed I would be more concerned if the arm was within reach of other appendages.
3. Re:Runs at 1/3600 real time by Tablizer · 2012-11-30 06:31 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  I have a few co-workers like that
  
  --
  Table-ized A.I.
4. Re:Runs at 1/3600 real time by Tablizer · 2012-11-30 06:33 · Score: 2
  
  We'll let you know in the year 2430.
  
  --
  Table-ized A.I.
5. Re:Runs at 1/3600 real time by jeffb+(2.718) · 2012-11-30 08:09 · Score: 1
  
  Ah, yes, "weak superhumanity".
  What we really need to simulate in faster-than-realtime is the brain processes for optimizing this model. Once we can do that, things should click along nicely./p>
6. Re:Runs at 1/3600 real time by JonySuede · 2012-11-30 10:32 · Score: 2
  
  That statement was almost true until around 2007-2009 were the processor industry switched from an exponential cpu speed function to a linear or logarithmic one...
  Definitions
  n : floored integer
  s : cpu speed
  l : float between 0[ and ]1
  p : float between [1 2[
  s(n) : speed at month n
  The function for Moore's law
  s(0) : some number
  s(n) : s(n/18)*2
  A linear speed function
  s(0) : some number
  s(n) : l*(n-1)
  A logarithmic speed function
  s(0) : some number
  s(n) : p*(n-1)
  
  That shift is significant, now I.A. researchers must also consider speed and parallelism, they cannot rely on Moore's anymore...
  
  --
  Jehovah be praised, Oracle was not selected
I really like its enthusiasm by Tablizer · 2012-11-30 05:38 · Score: 2, Funny

"I still have the highest confidence in the mission, Dave."

--
Table-ized A.I.
Comes the next question: by Alwin+Henseler · 2012-11-30 05:39 · Score: 1, Offtopic

What to teach Spaun: that it was intelligently designed, or evolved from its predecessors?
1. Re:Comes the next question: by CanHasDIY · 2012-11-30 05:40 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  What to teach Spaun: that it was intelligently designed, or evolved from its predecessors?
  Why not both?
  
  --
  An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
2. Re:Comes the next question: by ByOhTek · 2012-11-30 05:44 · Score: 1
  
  Unlike living organisms, It is not a derivation of it's predecessors put into place by selective forces acting on semi-random changes, but rather designed by people.
  I'd say intelligently designed.
  
  --
  Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
3. Re:Comes the next question: by mevets · 2012-11-30 06:14 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  (Presumably) intelligently designed to mimic an evolved component of an evolved organism...
4. Re:Comes the next question: by mark-t · 2012-11-30 06:23 · Score: 2
  
  So what do you, as a creator, if the ai stubbornly concludes that your explanation of it's origins is unacceptable... After all, if you could evolve, why could it not have also evolved, and in turn rejects the notion that you created it at all?
  
  --
  File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
5. Re:Comes the next question: by Mr.CRC · 2012-11-30 17:32 · Score: 1
  
  The your AI isn't very I after all. Reboot and back to the drawing board. The key to setting off on the path of non-Darwinian evolution is for the machine to be able to correctly grasp its own workings so as to be able to reprogram and improve itself, by itself. Such an AI will have no trouble accepting the plain facts as to its origin, and that its origin is fundamentally different from that of the biological life forms which invented it. An AI is a sense is a 2nd generation life form. One that was created by the 1st gen. life form, which evolved from the primordial goo.
6. Re:Comes the next question: by jedwidz · 2012-11-30 18:56 · Score: 1
  
  What to teach Spaun: that it was intelligently designed, or evolved from its predecessors?
  Intelligently designed, and that it had better fucking behave itself or watch out!
7. Re:Comes the next question: by mark-t · 2012-12-01 07:44 · Score: 1
  
  I'd suggest it might conclude it evolved, for instance, from the evidence that much simpler machines had existed before it. What reasons would it have to listen to us? Not because it has any particular sci-fi notion to destroy us, but simply because it perceives us as superfluous to its existence, except to the extent that it might realize we have the ability to control it.
  And reboot it? Does that not somehow imply that our own sense of morality is greater than that which the machine might possess, by virtue of its free-willed intelligence? Is that our inherent right as its creator? Would that not also mean that if we were created, that our creator has an equal right to do with us as is seen fit, regardless of what we perceive as right or wrong?
  
  --
  File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
paywall / links to summary by kris_lang · 2012-11-30 05:39 · Score: 2

Could you possibly post a link to a version that is not hidden behind a paywall? Perhaps a pre-print on your own research site; perhaps an HTML web page summary of your work?
.
http://nengo.ca/
.
It looks like they use Python scripting in their NENGO simulator: http://www.frontiersin.org/neuroinformatics/10.3389/neuro.11/007.2009/abstract
1. Re:paywall / links to summary by jigamo · 2012-11-30 06:02 · Score: 1
  
  Just as a clarification, it looks like only 1 of the 3 links in the summary (the 2nd link that goes to sciencemag.com) is behind a paywall.
  
  --
  Save money on your cell phone bill: Republic Wireless
2. Re:paywall / links to summary by dj_tla · 2012-11-30 06:11 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Hey, I'm still figuring out the copyright rules as to what I can post, but there are plenty of things already available:
  This paper on Spaun specifically
  Some background on how Spaun is built
  Some background (with code) on the theoretical framework used
  The actual code for Spaun
  I'll let you know if a pre-print goes up!
  We do use Python scripting to interface with our simulator, Nengo. See the last link for the actual script we use for Spaun.
south end of northbound horse by fyngyrz · 2012-11-30 05:45 · Score: 1

That is unreasonable. It would make those who can't afford it feel left out and discriminated against.
I can't afford a yacht, or even a Lambo. I don't feel left out or discriminated against on that basis.

--
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
1. Re:south end of northbound horse by drosboro · 2012-11-30 05:49 · Score: 1
  
  Uh oh. The entire Christmas shopping thing is predicated on the assumption that you WILL feel left out on EXACTLY that basis. Better get my retirement savings out of retail stocks.
2. Re:south end of northbound horse by gstoddart · 2012-11-30 05:52 · Score: 1
  
  I can't afford a yacht, or even a Lambo. I don't feel left out or discriminated against on that basis.
  I do. I've come to accept that won't change anything though. :-P
  
  --
  Lost at C:>. Found at C.
3. Re:south end of northbound horse by fyngyrz · 2012-11-30 05:52 · Score: 1
  
  When you do, wait until an ultracap company announces an ultracap that has battery-equivalant energy, cost and cubic space consumption. Then put ALL your money right there. You can thank me later. :)
  
  --
  I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
4. Re:south end of northbound horse by Andy+Prough · 2012-11-30 05:53 · Score: 2
  
  Apple hates you. The entire company. Seething, festering hatred.
5. Re:south end of northbound horse by fyngyrz · 2012-11-30 06:54 · Score: 1
  
  Well, perhaps, but not on this basis -- I can afford, and in fact own, lots of Apple gear. I think OSX 10.6 and earlier, before they hosed the multi-monitor support, is a great OS.
  The original contention was that if one could not afford something, this would be disturbing. I don't find that to be the case at all, beyond a certain basic level. I was happy living with my cat and bookshelves made of planks, back in the day. I got my books from the used bookstore and I really felt like things were just fine. :)
  Now I can afford more, and I in fact buy more, but it doesn't define my happiness, I assure you.
  
  --
  I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
6. Re:south end of northbound horse by readin · 2012-11-30 07:40 · Score: 2
  
  One of the reasons you don't feel left out is because you know that if you work hard enough and you apply enough intelligence, you have a fair shot at one day owning that yacht or, if not you, your kids do. The capabilities of man are mysterious enough and far enough from technology that it is assumed in places with some basic freedoms like America that every child has a shot at becoming rich. Access education and inheritance only gets you so far if you don't apply yourself. And people like Bill Clinton demonstrate that even someone from a relatively poor background can still become filthy rich.
  
  But what if that changes? What if being born to a wealthy family doesn't just give you external advantages like networking, school tuition and capital, but also gives you inherent mental and physical advantages that a poor simply can't match no matter how hard he tries or how good his genes? This would create a new class system much like that of the middle ages where being born noble guaranteed a life as a noble and being born a commoner guaranteed a life as a commoner.
  
  --
  I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
7. Re:south end of northbound horse by fisted · 2012-11-30 08:25 · Score: 2
  
  In unrelated news, fyngyrz announces an ultracap that has battery-equivalant energy, cost and cubic space consumption.
  
  --
  CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
8. Re:south end of northbound horse by fyngyrz · 2012-11-30 08:31 · Score: 1
  
  Hah. I wish. :)
  
  --
  I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Re:Did you read that in Maurice LaMarche's voice? by FilmedInNoir · 2012-11-30 05:47 · Score: 1

No, Richard Dysart's voice... What are you talking about?

--
Sig. Sig. Sputnik
The Terminal Experiment by Leif_Bloomquist · 2012-11-30 05:55 · Score: 1

This type of tech is a central part of Robert J. Sawyer's sci-fi novel "The Terminal Experiment". Very good read, if a bit dated now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Terminal_Experiment
http://www.sfwriter.com/exte.htm
1. Re:The Terminal Experiment by tcstewar · 2012-11-30 21:41 · Score: 1
  
  I'd argue that it's closer to what Greg Egan describes in Zendegi: http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/ZENDEGI/ZENDEGI.html
Emulated behaviour is amazing by xtal · 2012-11-30 06:02 · Score: 4, Interesting

The fact this responds in similar ways is astonishing.. not because of what this model has accomplished, but because it's a great big flashing light pointing to this being the right way to machine intelligence. "HEY OVER HERE!"
I'll pre order his book, and wait patiently for an open source version of this research / model to appear for people to hack on.
It's slow now, but 1/3600 speed within the next generation of computers to do in real time - and that's without optimization.
Interesting times indeed.

--
..don't panic
1. Re:Emulated behaviour is amazing by dj_tla · 2012-11-30 06:16 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  This model is already open source! I have been very adamant about keeping this the case in the Eliasmith lab. The model is here, and the software running it is here (and on github).
2. Re:Emulated behaviour is amazing by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-30 06:29 · Score: 1
  
  Ughh... this is interesting, but is exactly sort of the useless attention-seeking research that's ruining neuroscience and turning it into a snake-oil show.
  Sorry, that sounds harsh, and I don't mean to be offensive, but there's lots of people that have been able to model these tasks better than these individuals.
  The problem is that the outcomes they're evaluating--performance on these sorts of pre-defined tasks--don't mean there's an accurate model of what's actually happening on the brain as a whole. The outcome space is so incredibly constrained that they've essentially created something that can do the tasks they've defined, which isn't the same as producing real-world behavior (and has empirically been shown to be the case). It's the tail wagging the dog, essentially.
  Neuroscience has essentially created this laboratory world that's only weakly related to the real world (this has been empirically demonstrated time and time again). It's as if anything that's worth studying behaviorally is what can be done in a scanner. We've created this illusion that what's outside the scanner doesn't matter.
3. Re:Emulated behaviour is amazing by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-30 06:33 · Score: 1
  
  I knew I should have opted for 24GB DDR3 instead of a 8GB kit.
4. Re:Emulated behaviour is amazing by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-30 06:35 · Score: 1
  
  Are you guys looking for [remote] volunteers? Is there some component of this research that can be crowdsourced? A mechanism for providing donations to help fund this effort? Basically, is there a way for engineers or scientists that are interested in this field of study to help out short of dropping their lives and becoming research assistants in Canada?
5. Re:Emulated behaviour is amazing by dj_tla · 2012-11-30 06:55 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  I mean, we would be ecstatic to have people contribute in any way! That could even just mean learning the framework and the software and using it in your own research. We have lots of tutorials, and we'd be happy to help if you want to make your own models. The software itself is pretty good, but it's academic software, and certainly we'd welcome anyone's contributions to the software! We're pretty responsive, either at any of our emails, or by making a github issue if you need any assistance.
  Unfortunately, I don't know if we have a lot of "low hanging fruit", things that we need done but are just too lazy to do so. Though I'm sure we could come up with some of those tasks if desired, as we're certainly lazy.
6. Re:Emulated behaviour is amazing by perceptual.cyclotron · 2012-11-30 12:40 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I was actually about to upmod because in general I agree (and for the record, I have a PhD in cog neuro), and based on the summary and the nature write-up, I was underwhelmed. But skimming the Science paper, these guys have legitimately done something that really hasn't been done before. The model gets a picture that tells it what task it's supposed to do, preserves that context while getting the task-relevant input, gets the answer to the problem (and the problems are, computationally, pretty wide-ranging), and writes the answer (i.e., it's not being read out from the state of a surface layer and transcoded to a human-readable result). All of this is being done with reasonably-realistic spiking neurons (with Eliasmith, these are probably single-compartment LIF), configured in a gross-scale topology commensurate with what we know about neuroanatomy and connectivity.
  Is this going to unleash a new revolution in AI and cybernetics? Nope. But it's definitely both impressive and progressive for the field. Both Eliasmith and Izhikevich are the real deal. And while we certainly don't understand the brain well enough to make truly general-intelligence models, this kind of work is precisely the sort of step we need to be taking – scaling down the numbers but trying to reproduce the known connectivity is a lot more useful than building 10^10 randomly connected McCulloch-Pitts neurons...
7. Re:Emulated behaviour is amazing by xtal · 2012-11-30 15:32 · Score: 1
  
  I am intrigued by your ideas and will most certainly subscribe to your newsletter.
  While I am by no means formally trained in neuroscience, I am an EE who's followed with much interest the field of neural modelling and I have waited for decades for someone to publish results like this. Best of luck with your research and I look forward to going through the code!
  
  --
  ..don't panic
Re:Did you read that in Maurice LaMarche's voice? by Urban+Garlic · 2012-11-30 06:28 · Score: 1

Same way I read everything, Pinky.

--
2*3*3*3*3*11*251
Uh Oh... by Brewster+Jennings · 2012-11-30 06:51 · Score: 1

Spaun sees a series of digits: 1 2 3; 5 6 7; 3 4 ?. Its neurons fire, and it calculates the next logical number in the sequence. It scrawls out a 5
What the article doesn't tell you is that the "5" was followed by "@r@H c0Nn0r?"...
AI @ pains? by jwz83 · 2012-11-30 06:52 · Score: 1

Not sure, but if computers can get intelligent, isn't there then a special ethics to it? Perhaps let information be oriented on by computers but a way to back up its intelligence so that it can delete parts of its development for as long necessary? (meaning it can have pains and decide to continue with pains. "A mad machine' "? (bezerking?))
Hardware Requirement: 24 GB RAM by girlinatrainingbra · 2012-11-30 06:53 · Score: 1

This model requires a machine with at least 24GB of RAM to run the full implementation. Estimated run times for a quad-core 2.5GHz are 3 hours per 1 second of simulation time.
:>)
So running the model requires running it inside a Java Virtual Machine and running the Spaun model appears to require having a machine with 24 GigaBytes of RAM to allow the JVM enough space for doing its thing.
And the simulation runs at 3 hours of wall-clock time (I assume) per 1 second of simulated time, ~ 10800:1.
.
Perhaps not using Java might help a bit; perhaps just Python; perhaps just straight in C to really speed things up? Perhaps even a GPU version to really-zoom-speed it up?
1. Re:Hardware Requirement: 24 GB RAM by dj_tla · 2012-11-30 06:58 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Hey, we're definitely thinking about this! In fact, the Java version can run on a GPU. And we're in the process of making a fast Python version based on theano. Unfortunately, even with all of these speedups, we're still talking about lots of neurons and lots of computation.
  However, there are plenty of smaller scale models that you can run in Nengo to get a sense of what's going on in the larger Spaun model! The tutorials are a good place to start.
2. Re:Hardware Requirement: 24 GB RAM by iggymanz · 2012-11-30 07:55 · Score: 1
  
  you imagine python is faster than java at common scientific computational tasks? it's about 20 to 50 times slower
3. Re:Hardware Requirement: 24 GB RAM by Suiggy · 2012-11-30 07:58 · Score: 1
  
  What platform are you using for GPU computing? CUDA? OpenCL?
4. Re:Hardware Requirement: 24 GB RAM by dj_tla · 2012-11-30 08:02 · Score: 2
  
  Because Python's such a nice glue language, it can talk to super fast Fortran and C libraries to be at at least comparable speed with Java. See NumPy. This is kind of stuff scientists use for number crunching.
5. Re:Hardware Requirement: 24 GB RAM by dj_tla · 2012-11-30 08:09 · Score: 2
  
  We're using CUDA, so you'll need a recent NVidia card to run models on the GPU.
6. Re:Hardware Requirement: 24 GB RAM by Jartan · 2012-11-30 08:25 · Score: 1
  
  Actually this may be a good example of something that could heavily benefit from JIT compiling. Since they're unsure what their own program needs to do it's going to be hard to optimize it manually.
7. Re:Hardware Requirement: 24 GB RAM by Suiggy · 2012-11-30 08:26 · Score: 2
  
  Yeah, seriously. When it comes to maximizing performance/watt, C and OpenCL would be the way to go. I've taken a cognitive vision system using SURF + cluster analysis originally written in Java running at non-interactive rates on quad-core desktop system requiring gigs of RAM, and rewrote it in C using SIMD intrinsics and various other optimizations to improve cache efficiency and had it running at interactive rates on a single-core 800MHz ARM Cortex A8, 512MB of RAM, and PowerVR SGX 535 (a common mobile phone target). The ARM OpenCL implementation wasn't available at the time, but I hacked together some stuff exploiting OpenGL ES 2.0 shaders for a couple of the computationally expensive hotspots, and eventually got it running at real-time rates. It was something like a 6000x speed increase over the original naive Java version, even with the slower CPU.
  That said, Spaun is a research project after all, so you use what you're familiar with.
8. Re:Hardware Requirement: 24 GB RAM by Suiggy · 2012-11-30 08:39 · Score: 1
  
  Thanks, also thanks for making the source code and the rest of your work available. Very promising research you've done.
9. Re:Hardware Requirement: 24 GB RAM by dj_tla · 2012-11-30 08:46 · Score: 1
  
  Hmm... that's an excellent point! We have a few of hot loops that run over and over and over again. But, because of that we know what needs to be optimized and we've tried to do so. It's true though that some optimizations we've tried haven't worked out well, so the JVM's JIT compiler might be what's saving us most of the time. Personally I'd like to write it all in RPython and have it make a JIT for us ;)
10. Re:Hardware Requirement: 24 GB RAM by dj_tla · 2012-11-30 08:48 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, I wouldn't call our Java implementation "naive" per se, but we are definitely looking into implementing other simulation back-ends and decoupling the Nengo GUI from the simulation core. I'll look more seriously into C and OpenCL -- does it run on both ATI and NVidia cards? We have mostly NVidia cards here.
11. Re:Hardware Requirement: 24 GB RAM by Suiggy · 2012-11-30 09:24 · Score: 2
  
  You'll probably be best off with sticking with CUDA on nVidia hardware for now. nVidia's OpenCL implementation isn't quite as polished as it should be, but it's getting there. There are some idiosyncrasies between vendor's implementations, namely to do with auto-vectorization. AMD's compiler doesn't auto-vectorize, and nVidia's Fermi/Kepler hardware is scalar, so you end up having to write multiple code-paths for each architecture anyway to get best performance. All of the companies use highly-patched versions of Clang/LLVM for their OpenCL compiler, and they're only now starting to standardize on features, releasing them into the mainline, so this situation should improve with time.
  Longer term, OpenCL is pretty promising for portable heterogeneous high-performance computing. In addition to GPUs, the compute kernels can run on CPU cores in parallel and there are a few companies writing implementations for their FPGA hardware too, and it'll be able to support future unified CPU/GPU memory addressing models. Intel is also heavily invested into OpenCL adoption for it's hardware.
12. Re:Hardware Requirement: 24 GB RAM by dj_tla · 2012-11-30 10:10 · Score: 1
  
  That's interesting... we are looking to interface with FPGA hardware too for some things, so a heterogeneous implementation would be great. I'll keep checking in on OpenCL as time goes on. Thanks!
13. Re:Hardware Requirement: 24 GB RAM by david.given · 2012-12-01 12:44 · Score: 1
  
  Are you using the rootbeer Java->GPU compiler, by any chance? If not, how are/i> you doing it? (I'm interested in running JVM languages on a GPU myself.)
14. Re:Hardware Requirement: 24 GB RAM by dj_tla · 2012-12-03 02:58 · Score: 1
  
  Whoa, I had no idea rootbeer existed! That sounds quite useful, thanks for the link!
  We're doing this very explicitly, by writing CUDA code in C and interacting with it in our Java program with JNI.
15. Re:Hardware Requirement: 24 GB RAM by iggymanz · 2012-12-08 04:43 · Score: 1
  
  I agree Python is a wonderful language, and of course ForTran (the most optimzable language for number crunching) libraries can be faster than java's in some cases.
  Being old, I spelled the name meaning FormulaTranslation the old way for amusement.
Destination: Void by ThatsNotPudding · 2012-11-30 06:59 · Score: 1

Destination: Void is a great Frank Herbert book along these lines; always thought it would make a great play. Admittedly, the last line is a bit too cheesy, though.
No, Spaun on NENGO Runs at 1/10800 real time by girlinatrainingbra · 2012-11-30 07:01 · Score: 2

re: Runs at 1/3600 real time
.
No, it appears that running the Spaun model on NENGO in a Java Virtual machine on a quad-core cpu running at 2.5 GHz takes 3 hours to run an emulated 1 second:
.
http:models.nengo.ca/spaun
Notes: -------- - This model requires a machine with at least 24GB of RAM to run the full implementation. Estimated run times for a quad-core 2.5GHz are 3 hours per 1 second of simulation time. - See the run_spaun.py file in the spaun directory for experiment options.:
Synthetic biology.... by arcite · 2012-11-30 07:07 · Score: 1

IN SPACE! Come on man, this stuff would be perfect in space. Also once we modify ourselves to meld with the artificial, we'll be able to move beyond this pale blue dot.
1. Re:Synthetic biology.... by TeknoHog · 2012-11-30 09:01 · Score: 1
  
  IN SPACE!
  With friggin' LASERS!
  
  --
  Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
2. Re:Synthetic biology.... by AwesomeMcgee · 2012-11-30 12:13 · Score: 1
  
  I prefer Freegin Lasers, much higher quality IMHO.
3. Re:Synthetic biology.... by TeknoHog · 2012-12-01 09:25 · Score: 1
  
  Free* gin, I'll drink to that!
  *free as in beer
  
  --
  Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
understanding the brain by gordona · 2012-11-30 08:57 · Score: 2

If the brain were simple enough to be understood, it would be too simple to understand itself. (anonymous author).

--
"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!" -- Dr. Strangelove
1. Re:understanding the brain by ceoyoyo · 2012-11-30 11:19 · Score: 2
  
  That stupid quote has always bothered me. "Understanding" doesn't mean knowledge of every feature to an arbitrary level of detail. I understand the basic functioning of my couch even though it contains more particles than my brain so my brain cannot possibly contain arbitrarily detailed knowledge of it.
2. Re:understanding the brain by HybridST · 2012-11-30 12:17 · Score: 1
  
  Neither correctly recalled nor attributed but that's not an issue in these days so don't worry too much about it.
  "If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't."
  Lyall Watson
  I started typing and Google showed me the way.
  On a somewhat related note although Bing is improving I hope it never becomes a verb...
  
  --
  Ever notice that Cobra Commander sounds an awful lot like Star scream?
3. Re:understanding the brain by VortexCortex · 2012-11-30 14:37 · Score: 1
  
  If the brain were simple enough to be understood, it would be too simple to understand itself. (anonymous author).
  Which is why we just build bigger brains. o_O
Goodbye anti-spam automated challenge systems by Raystonn · 2012-11-30 19:02 · Score: 1

Think how much the spammers and data miners would pay for such a simulated brain. Typical anti-spammer challenges on the web involve presentation of a picture of a sequence of characters and digits, which you must identify and repeat back as ASCII text. This simulated brain could easily accomplish that task. What challenge system will we switch to next...
1. Re:Goodbye anti-spam automated challenge systems by leonem · 2012-12-01 03:26 · Score: 1
  
  Greg Egan describes a world in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permutation_City where the spam arms race has led to intelligent spam bots, and spam filters which are a simplified simulation of your own brain, which reads the spam to decide if you would want to see it yourself.
  (N.B. I wouldn't want to give the impression that's all there is to the book, it's just a very, very small part of it. It's a good read if you think you'd like a novel which explores some of the implications of simulating human brains. The simulation speed is an issue too: if you want to go talk with the AIs you either have to do it 'by post' or slow your own brain down to their speed.)