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IBM unveils cognitive computing chips that mimic human brain
Fans of the 'Terminator' franchise might sleep a little uneasy tonight as IBM, teaming with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and four universities, has designed the first working computer chips modeled after the human brain.
In the popular film series, Skynet is an artificial intelligence system built by Cyberdyne Systems for the US armed forces. The goal was to remove the possibility of human error and provide an efficient response to incoming enemy attacks, but things went horribly wrong when the system became self-aware and turned on humanity.
The project is called Synapse (Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics, stylized as SyNAPSE), based on the junction between neurons and other cells in the nervous system. Dharmendra Modha is the chief investigator of the project and a researcher at IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California.
“This is the seed for a new generation of computers, using a combination of supercomputing, neuroscience, and nanotechnology,” Modha said in an interview with VentureBeat. ”The computers we have today are more like calculators. We want to make something like the brain. It is a sharp departure from the past.”
At current, the system is comprised of three key elements that make it very similar to the human brain. It has neurons that act as digital processors to compute information, synapses which are described as the foundation of learning and memory and axons that connect various parts of the system together.
IBM’s cognitive chip design is far from global domination but researchers hope that one day the chips can simulate and emulate the brain’s ability to perceive surroundings, sense, recognize and interact without human guidance.
The first prototype computing units use 256 neurons, 65,536 synapses and 256 axons. IBM hopes to eventually build a system with 10 billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses. In comparison, the human brain has one billion neurons and 10 trillion synapses.
The project was started in late 2008 with a $4.9 million grant from DARPA, the US government’s military research division. Phase two of the project is said to begin soon where a computer will be built around the brain chips.
User Comments: 42
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spydercanopus said:Mindwraith said:
computers and robots are pretty fragile, i think being afraid of real life terminators is a bit silly :P
But human lives will be placed in their hands. Your computer might get sad like Marvin from Hitchhiker's Guide and commit suicide. Or your car could plot against you like HAL from Space Odyssey. It's misplaced trust in them that is dangerous.
SPOILER ALERT: There was absolutely nothing wrong with HAL except for the people who programmed him. HAL was hardwired to never tell a lie, but told by its masters to lie to the crew about the mission. This here caused a serious error in its simulated brain which made him preserve the mission at any cost which is why it looked like he went rogue and tried to kill everyone.
Come on people, get your 2001 sorted?
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DARPA funding implies (actually guarantees) that the ultimate purpose of developing a pseudo-human intellect in a cybernetic host (the SyNAPSE) will be to help develop ultra-rapid, human-like interfaces between humans and computers. In other words, this research will likely lead to supersoldiers (cyborgs), intelligent drones and hyper-intelligence, Any of these assets would be invaluable in fighting foreign wars or insurrections, hidden surveillance of enemies at home and espionage ventures anywhere they are needed, to name a few uses,
In the corporate world (and this is the Industrial-military complex in action), the development of thought capable androids, robots and maybe even cyborg medical implants to enhance intelligence and other human limitations would allow the elite to totally surpass the sweaty masses. Ultimately the dream of every technocrat and corporate czar is to access and control more power, information, resources and assets while using enhanced medical supports to live longer, healthier, more alert lives. Their greatest tools will be the technological addiction that We the People are hooked on. Our children are now so plugged in and media/computer dependent that sedentary obesity is the 2nd highest health problem in the US among teenagers. These Technoczars will control all the media, the net, the input, the technological and manufacturing resources , access to the technology and content as well.
Welcome to the 21st century where we will have robots programmed by special interests and shadowy non-governmental entities ¨serving¨ (read watching, shepherding, influencing) us while they work for and obey other less benign forces, we are totally ignorant of!
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^^^ Cool story bro
Our children are now so plugged in and media/computer dependent that sedentary obesity is the 2nd highest health problem in the US among teenagersWhat's the first? Needlessly worrying about the robot uprising?
Welcome to the 21st century where we will have robots programmed by special interests and shadowy non-governmental entities ¨serving¨ (read watching, shepherding, influencing) us while they work for and obey other less benign forces, we are totally ignorant of!They are already here. They are called politicians. They have been here for at least 2500 years.
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But may be this is their 'most corrupt + greediest + deadliest + blindest' model DBZ ?
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What's the first? Needlessly worrying about the robot uprising?
They are already here. They are called politicians. They have been here for at least 2500 years.
But may be this is their 'most corrupt + greediest + deadliest + blindest' model DBZ ?
We missed George W Bush, did we? That guy was the US' answer to "Tommy"!
All his intelligence was artificial. His marks were just s*** his professors wrote down because they were paid to.
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We could elect that computer president and it wouldn't need a teleprompter. In fact it could replace everyone in DC (President, Senate and House of Reps.) and do a heck of a lot better job.
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We could elect that computer president and it wouldn't need a teleprompter. In fact it could replace everyone in DC (President, Senate and House of Reps.) and do a heck of a lot better job.We're mostly on the same page here. But, I would have worded it, "a job, or perhaps, "any job at all"! Maybe, "do something, anything". I could go on.
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captaincranky said:We could elect that computer president and it wouldn't need a teleprompter. In fact it could replace everyone in DC (President, Senate and House of Reps.) and do a heck of a lot better job.We're mostly on the same page here. But, I would have worded it, "a job, or perhaps, "any job at all"! Maybe, "do something, anything". I could go on.
Cheaper: No salaries, no limo service, no Air Force One, no secret service, no presidential suites. Make the sucker out of depleted Uranium, give it a power pack and it can walk to a state visit and be pretty much impervious to the dissatisfaction of the electorate
And of course, if this robot is smarter than the average person (or order of magnitude smarter than a pol), then you're not going to have too much problem with the pitfalls that usually befall US politicians (keeping it in his pants, brainfreeze, financial inducements from lobbyists).
Of course if this robo-prez is supposedly fully cogisant/self aware/"hyper-intelligent"...how long would it take for it to break any programming- especially if faced with two divergent/opposed courses of action (oath of office vs big biz/ [paranoia driven puppet-masters of choice])?
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hen you're not going to have too much problem with the pitfalls that usually befall US politicians (keeping it in his pants, brainfreeze, financial inducements from lobbyists).
Are you sure it will have this problem? I mean really there is no need for it to have one in the first place.
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Are you sure it will have this problem? I mean really there is no need for it to have one in the first place.
Comprehension fail there Archean? I can see that POTUS isn't the only person in need of replacement by a "hyper-intelligent" robot
...then you're not going to have too much problem with the pitfalls that usually befall US politicians...etc...etc -
Oops yes I 'jumped' to conclusion too quickly, as I was heading out to do the most boring thing in the world, which I try to avoid doing by all thinkable means and fail .... i.e. grocery shopping. :o
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I wouldn't be in favour of a robot or something other artificial running my country; You always know that there's some human back in the line who made it and programmed it. I'd be much more happier with some sort of intelligent plant or vegetable.
....like a venus flytrap or maybe Stephen Hawking perhaps.
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bioflex said:Mindwraith said:
computers and robots are pretty fragile, i think being afraid of real life terminators is a bit silly :P
are you kidding me?, maybe all you have just seen are plastic robots, better wait till they make metallic ones like in terminator. Imagine how they could use all that for wars and human domination.
We are totally screwed.
That's right man, that's why the "Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency" is involved in the whole matter... yeah, because they are going to build robots that do haircuts and clean up the kitchen... believe me, it's much easier to teach them to use a pistol than scissors!
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Politicians = mindless robots guided by a uniform code of greed
The military = equally mindless robots controlled indirectly by corporate greed and politicians
Political parties = a collection of the above dedicated to their own benefit
General population = force-fed zombie robots addicted to fast food,TV, video games and cafe lattes
Liberals = cyborgs in the making
Conservative religious fundamentalists = robots programmed to believe anything and question nothing
Republicans = stock, off the shelf robots, pre-programmed, low grade and brain-dead
Democrats = as above but heading towards cyborg status
Independents = no-name brand of the above
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mimic but not replace
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Does this imply that we can transfer our own cognitive thinking into a chip and live on as cyborgs in a couple of decades...?
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How to email yourself
Does this imply that we can transfer our own cognitive thinking into a chip and live on as cyborgs in a couple of decades...? If you're going to download, how about this....
Send out some of your smart robots in space ships with some frozen human embryo's and supplies to some of the more promising sectors of the galaxy. When/if technology gets advanced enough to transfer conciousness, have the robots thaw and "grow" some humans. Send the downloaded conciousness as a transmission to the new bods. Find habitable planets -all well and good, if not transmit the conciousness back to Earth and a suitable recipient.
Gets around the slow travelling speeds / long distances problem.
/lets someone else worry about the ethics
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