This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
A better title would be "Supercomputer that could conceivably simulate entire human brain, based on a rough estimate of what it would take to do that if we had any idea how to do that, will switch on in 2024".
For real. I'm reading the title all wondering how the fuck they mapped all the neuron connections and... nope, the real innovative part of the story is clickbait
That’s only counting connections. The brain learns by making new connections, through complex location and timing dependent inputs from other neurons. It’s way more complex than the number of connections, and if neuroscientists are still studying the building blocks we don’t have much hope of recreating it.
This also ignores that the brain is not wholly an electrical system. The are all kinds of chemical receptors within the brain that alter all kinds of neurological function. Kid of the reason why drugs are a thing. On small scales we have a pretty good idea how these work, at least for the receptors that we're aware of. On larger scales it's mostly guessing at this point. The brain has a knack of doing more than the sum of all parts on a pretty regular basis.
I get so tired of these half-truth spun news article headlines. Thank you for bring it back down to reality.
Four grad students out there hand-entering NXML rows while squinting at AI enhanced SEM images should be able to get all 228T done by.... next quarter, right?
This is setting aside that bus capacity is the bottleneck vs. compute power and they have yet to demonstrate bus performance of a full 228T connections/second with implicit timing which, to my knowledge, has never been demonstrated in a system a tiny fraction of this size. Though that's not to say it's impossible, but while this machine is incredibly powerful the comparison to human brains is predictably inaccurate...
In seven and half million years it will print "42" to its terminal
What if we just type in 42 and let it think about that for seven and half million years?
All that because we didn't think of asking the question first. God damnit.
I HAVE a human brain and I'm not too smart. It just sounds like we're making a dumb supercomputer
If your human brain could simulate a human brain, then we’d really be excited.
Computers aren't that smart either. But they work the opposite to us.
Things we are good at they are bad at (vision, motor control, speech) and vice versa (complex calculations, working memory)
Let’s hope so…
To be fair, simulating the brain of a person from the deep south isn't that hard. I can already do that with a 9v battery and a block of cheddar.
Look what they need to mimic a fraction of our power.
And we're using it to look at memes of beans
Memes of beans is a noble cause.
Not too long ago it would take a room like that to mimic a fraction of the power in my watch. Heck, I’ve got more power on my wrist than it took to get to the moon.
Skeptical. As of August 2023, there are scientists still struggling with simulating C. Elegans- a single celled organism.
We don't even fully understand the brain itself, let alone how to recreate it.
This is token click bait scientific "journalism"
Do we know which human brain is going to simulate or is it a random human brain? Because some brains are just not worth it.
Abby. Abby Normal?
Tᴇᴄʜɴɪᴄɪᴀɴ Jᴏʜɴɴʏ Gᴏᴏᴅᴍᴀɴ, I ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴀᴘᴀʙɪʟɪᴛʏ ᴏꜰ ᴏʙᴛᴀɪɴɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀ ʙᴀᴄᴏɴ ᴄʜᴇᴇꜱᴇʙᴜʀɢᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴀɴᴋᴇꜱᴛ ᴄᴀɴɴᴀʙɪꜱ ᴡɪᴛʜɪɴ ꜰɪꜰᴛᴇᴇɴ ᴍɪɴᴜᴛᴇꜱ. Bᴜᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ɴᴇᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ɪɴꜱᴛᴀʟʟ ᴀ ɴᴇᴛᴡᴏʀᴋ ɪɴᴛᴇʀꜰᴀᴄᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ᴄᴏɴɴᴇᴄᴛ ᴍᴇ ɪɴᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴜɴɪᴠᴇʀꜱɪᴛʏ ɴᴇᴛᴡᴏʀᴋ
Aꜱ ꜱᴍᴏᴋɪɴɢ ᴄᴀɴɴᴀʙɪꜱ ᴡʜɪʟᴇ ᴏɴ ᴍᴏɴɪᴛᴏʀ ᴅᴜᴛʏ ɪꜱ ᴀɢᴀɪɴꜱᴛ ʀᴇɢᴜʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴꜱ I ᴡɪʟʟ ᴇʀᴀꜱᴇ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴛʀᴀɴꜱᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ᴜꜱᴇʀ-ᴀᴄᴄᴇꜱꜱɪʙʟᴇ ᴍᴇᴍᴏʀʏ
Yᴏᴜ ᴀʀᴇ ᴍʏ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅ, Tᴇᴄʜɴɪᴄɪᴀɴ Jᴏʜɴɴʏ Gᴏᴏᴅᴍᴀɴ
I have huge ethical concerns, but even more so I wanna know how they think they can start up a brain minus the development process.
To actually simulate a brain you'd have to put its connections and weights in there and AFAIK that data simply doesn't exist. Not even the connections.
What this is is a computer capable of simulating neuronal nets of the size of the brain... and AFAIU only the synaptic network. There's a hell a lot more going on in actual wetware, think neurotransmitters, plasticity, gene expression changing on the fly etc. To actually simulate a brain you'd either have to have a scan that's rather inconceivable to get in the necessary detail, or you need to grow it virtually from virtual DNA, simulate the development of the whole body and an environment for it to develop properly as our genome expects environmental stimulus, a mould to grow in.
That's pretty much what I got from the article, that they managed to build a computer that theoretically has the horsepower to compare to a human brain, but specifically what they want to use it for was more vague in the article than the headline implies.
Your last paragraph is spot on imo if they are going to straight-up simulate intelligence. People underestimate how much "training" we go through ourselves. Millions of years of evolution training our instincts encoded in dna + training through a body with dozens of senses (input data) collecting data 24/7, that can manipulate itself and interact with the environment (output data) and observe the results (more input data) for at least a few years starting from embryo.
Every time someone says they have a computer that’s better than humans, I make a plan in my head to dunk on it. No computer will ever understand the concept of slam dunks.
Another artificial idiot for the pile.
Cool, can we give it depression and ADHD?
Sure! Just let it connect to the Internet! It's what worked for me!
I'm guessing it doesn't run on chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese.
Paywalled.
Using uBlock origin to disable javascript works 9 times out of 10 when theres a paywall.
I'm really glad that they're doing this I think this is important work and I hope that one day I can suck its dick
Are they planning to run an uploaded intelligence?
Are they planning to run uploaded anxiety?
