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The Computer That Replicates a Human Brain
What’s the next great computing development? According to Stanford researchers, it’s based on the human brain.
Researchers at Stanford University recently announced the development of a circuit board that mimics the behavior of the human brain, producing much greater processing power than typical PCs while using much less energy. The “Neurogrid” circuit, as it’s called, replicates the processes of 1 million human neurons. The results yield computer chips 9,000 times faster than a run-of-the-mill computer, using only the power of a tablet PC.
By combining 16 “Neurocore” microchips, the researchers have reached a new benchmark in computer-brain simulation. Previous attempts to simulate brain processes used software, silicon chips, or a combination of both. But the “Neurogrid” process comes from combining analog computing processes with digital ones, Kwabena Boahen, one of the lead researchers on the project and an associate professor of bioengineering at Stanford, told The Daily Beast.
“Analog computing is nothing new,” Boahen said. “These computers have been in development since the 1940s. Digital computation has been in development almost as long. However, the hybrid approach is quite original. With the combination of the two, we’re able to successfully model a billion synapses.”
Boahen noted that neurons in the brain take in input from many other neurons. “This is how analog computing works,” he said. “It’s a summing technique. It’s like many water pipes coming together into a single channel; an analog process amplifies input by eventually spilling over the top of what you might call ‘the dam.’ At this point, the output becomes the digital, discrete signal. It’s either a 1 or a 0.”
Silicon chips are typically two-dimensional, Boahen explained, limiting the number of dedicated currents they can utilize. In other words, it’s a largely linear process. However, the brain behaves in a three-dimensional manner, wherein many neurons can fire simultaneously—this is where the combination of analog and digital processes comes in.
The potential for uniting the Neurogrid with actual human processes is vast, the researchers note. Last week, Jason Silva wrote about transhumanism, or rather, “our need to grapple with the implications of a world sustained by increasingly powerful technologies, and a redefinition of what it means to be human.” Silva noted the increasing presence of techno-human interaction in mainstream thought, as in films like Her, Robocop, and Transcendence. While comparing this consciousness to the swift advancement of technology—“more change has occurred in the last 100 years than in the last billion,” he wrote—the gap between humanity and technology is closing every (nano)second. The Neurogrid seems to prove these Hollywood fictions are becoming closer to fact.
If the technology advances further, prosthetic interaction with the human mind could look like something out of science fiction.
For now, the Neurogrid is not meant for any kind of consumer prospect; rather, its development by bioengineers—not computer scientists—is meant specifically to model the human brain. Even to put the technology into the hands of electrical engineers (or anyone besides those who intimately know the workings of neurons) would not be immediately fruitful.
“This project has two key features,” Boahen said. “The first is following the organizing patterns of the brain: how it transmits and outputs data. The second feature is how to translate the technology efficiently: how to harness the power of this device for practical use. At the moment we’re quite a long ways away from putting it into another field.”
That’s not to say Boahen and his team aren’t working on that. In an article on the for the journal Proceedings of the IEEE, Boahen explained that a typical computer takes about 40,000 times more power to run than the human brain. “The human brain, with 80,000 times more neurons than Neurogrid, consumes only three times as much power,” he wrote.
Now, the goals of the researchers are to reduce even further the power the device needs, as well as lower its cost—currently at $40,000. If the power drain of the Neurogrid can be reduced enough to not overheat the actual human brain when they interact, it could be instrumental in applications like the advanced development of prosthetic limbs. A small prosthetic arm set up in Boahen’s lab reacts in real-time to the Neurogrid. If the technology advances further, prosthetic interaction with the human mind could look like something out of science fiction.
“We are no longer subject to Darwinian natural selection. Exponentially powerful technologies are transforming our sphere of possibilities. What it means to be human is up for grabs,” Silva wrote. “And why do we do this? To defy mortality. To extend our reach.”
Source: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/01/the-computer-that-replicates-a-human-brain.html
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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