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 simulated 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.
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The Blue Brain project was launched in 2005 and aims to reverse engineer the mammalian brain from laboratory data. In particular, his team has focused on the neocortical column – repetitive units of the mammalian brain known as the neocortex.“It’s a new brain,” he explained. “The mammals needed it because they had to cope with parenthood, social interactions complex cognitive functions.
“It was so successful an evolution from mouse to man it expanded about a thousand fold in terms of the numbers of units to produce this almost frightening organ.”
And that evolution continues, he said. “It is evolving at an enormous speed.”
We’ll be providing a discount coupon for some of our special and more deserving DU commenters.
I’m skeptical, unless they feel they can learn from a simulation of a mere few thousand synapses. Hardware still progresses in accordance with Moore’s Law, but software progresses at about one fifth that rate. If that.
A fascinating introduction to the hierarchical structure of the brain can be found in “On Intelligence” by Jeff Hawkins, founder of Palm and Handspring and inventor of the Palm Pilot and Handspring Treo. Look for it at a library near you!