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Why We Should Build a Supercomputer Replica of the Human Brain
An anonymous reader sends this excerpt from Wired:
"[Henry] Markram was proposing a project that has bedeviled AI researchers for decades, that most had presumed was impossible. He wanted to build a working mind from the ground up. ... The self-assured scientist claims that the only thing preventing scientists from understanding the human brain in its entirety — from the molecular level all the way to the mystery of consciousness — is a lack of ambition. If only neuroscience would follow his lead, he insists, his Human Brain Project could simulate the functions of all 86 billion neurons in the human brain, and the 100 trillion connections that link them. And once that's done, once you've built a plug-and-play brain, anything is possible. You could take it apart to figure out the causes of brain diseases. You could rig it to robotics and develop a whole new range of intelligent technologies. You could strap on a pair of virtual reality glasses and experience a brain other than your own."
It doesn't need to be a mirror image, but it needs to "develop" in the same manner.
The brain is plastic.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Not to mention that we have no clear definition for bare intelligence as it stands. And this braggart thinks we can just hook up enough xboxes and away we go? Hah! Neuroscience isn't following his lead because he's uneducated.
Actually he's one of the world's leading computational neuroscientists, and he's not proposing to just hook a lot of computers together.
He's proposing to simulate the brain from the neuron level up. And he just won a billion-euro award to pursue that.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
His whole argument is you don't NEED a definition of intelligence in order to build a replica. (Like you don't need to, I dunno, read German in order to be able to copy a passage of text written in German.) I mean, he's probably still wrong and crazy. But lack of a definition is not WHY he's probably wrong and crazy.
Those who fail to understand communication protocols, are doomed to repeat them over port 80.
As a neuroscientist, this seems absurd. Not all neurons perform the same functions, some are very different in terms of structure and connections (pyramidal cell vs interneuron for example). We don't have a good sense for all the multitude of ways they can connect (via axon projections, or through retrograde signals at a given synapse). And we're just starting to appreciate the role that non neuron brain cells play in cellular communication - astrocytes release signaling molecules that modulate neuronal function (caffeine interferes with these) and they also regulate the amount of ions around neurons - in essence they enable neurons to change states.
i don't know karate, but i know ca-razy