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New $1.6B supercomputer project will attempt to simulate the human brain

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Re: New $1.6B supercomputer project will attempt to simulate the human brain

#51
post #12

I would feel less skeptical about the prospects for simulating the human brain if I had heard that someone had succeeded in simulating an infinitely simpler nervous system, say that of a spider, for instance, and obtained spider-like behavior from it.

if i recall correctly, blue brain, also ran by Markram, has successfully emulated a rat cortex in some capacity.

Re: New $1.6B supercomputer project will attempt to simulate the human brain

#52
post #50
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

Sorry for not being more clear. I know that's not what you said. I was actually answering your question of what I'd consider adequate.

Nah, my bad, I forgot what I had written.

Re: New $1.6B supercomputer project will attempt to simulate the human brain

#53
post #12

I would feel less skeptical about the prospects for simulating the human brain if I had heard that someone had succeeded in simulating an infinitely simpler nervous system, say that of a spider, for instance, and obtained spider-like behavior from it.

The Human Brain Project's ultimate goal is to simulate human brain but its decade long project with 80 institutes and hundreds of scientist involved. I am sure simulating simpler brain systems will be part of the agenda before they move to much more complex systems.

Re: New $1.6B supercomputer project will attempt to simulate the human brain

#54

I get it, its interesting to understand our intelligence. But model a human brain? Why? Its pretty cheap to make them (and fun). They don't work all that well in the end - they're all bound up with food and sex and fear. Why not be even a little ambitious, and make something an order smarter? The human brain size is arbitrarily bound by the female pelvis size. Presumable the artifical one won't have that limit. And s…

The size of the brain is also bound by the huge amount of calories it consumes, and by how delicate it is. 5 minutes without oxygen? Boom, the organ you spent 20 years grooming is gone. Have the munchies? With your brain burning up to 30% of your calories, it may be the culprit.

Re: New $1.6B supercomputer project will attempt to simulate the human brain

#58
I have a feeling that this is like an attempt to simulate a SOC computer on a quantum physics level based on a blurry microscope image of it in hope to play minesweeper on that. Basic principles (neuron behaviour) are hell of a complex and we must do a lot of dangerous simplifications, we know nothing about the firmware (pre-wiring given by the evolution of our species), finally the software will be completely missing (in humans it is created by few years of supervised training and self-improvement).

Why not to try from the top?

Re: New $1.6B supercomputer project will attempt to simulate the human brain

#59
post #43
post #12

I would feel less skeptical about the prospects for simulating the human brain if I had heard that someone had succeeded in simulating an infinitely simpler nervous system, say that of a spider, for instance, and obtained spider-like behavior from it.

Precisely. Can we even see a complete simulation of E. Coli? It's disheartening how much of science news and research today is all about hype, smoke, and mirrors. It's becoming more about catching fleeting fame and money grabbing than actually producing interesting advances and results. Exactly how would they scale this when you have something like a hundred trillion synapses between the neurons in a brain? Mind you…

  > Precisely. Can we even see a complete simulation of
  > E. Coli?
Kind of: http://www.cell.com/abstract/S0092-8674(12)00776-3

Re: New $1.6B supercomputer project will attempt to simulate the human brain

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish this meme would die. It really just taints everything we are trying to do with Strong AI.

Do you have any proof that Strong AI would be safe for humans?

The default outcome for AGI is likely bad (http://singularity.org/files/ComplexValues.pdf and http://singularity.org/files/SaME.pdf), but not in the ridiculous way that movies portray it, and no one should be using the movies as a substitute for thought (http://lesswrong.com/lw/k9/the_logical_fallacy_of_generaliza...). There are so many types of AI minds, and so many ways for it to go wrong (http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Paperclip_maximizer) that picking out a very particular fictional one to stress over, make movies about, and attempt to constrain (even framing it as a constraint problem of some more "primitive" desire to destroy humanity) as the only default mind, is pretty silly.
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