Cap'n Refsmmat Posted November 19, 2009 Posted November 19, 2009 http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/11/ibm-makes-supercomputer-significantly-smarter-than-cat.ars It appears IBM has constructed and programmed a supercomputer to simulate the neurons in the cerebral cortex the size of a cat's. It's not fully real-time yet, but it simulates 1.6 billion neurons, and has the ability to save its state at any time so you can rewind and see just what's happening inside. Freaking awesome. The article points out that with a supercomputer just two or three orders of magnitude bigger you could simulate a human's cerebral cortex -- and imagine what we could learn from that.
Genecks Posted November 19, 2009 Posted November 19, 2009 So, are you saying we can have actual robot cats now?
Mr Skeptic Posted November 19, 2009 Posted November 19, 2009 Hm, I'm pretty sure they have cut some corners. I thought they were still working on simulations of individual cortical columns. I don't think they know yet which corners can be cut and which cannot.
insane_alien Posted November 19, 2009 Posted November 19, 2009 well, they haven't structurally modelled an entire cat brain. that wasn't the goal. they have just simulated a collection of neurons that outnumbers that of a cat. given the right structural information, the computer would be capable of simulating an entire cat brain. as for robot cats, unless they're 50m tall, powered by a nuclear reactor and have giant whiskers made of radio antenas then no, we can't have robot cats.
Cap'n Refsmmat Posted November 19, 2009 Author Posted November 19, 2009 as for robot cats, unless they're 50m tall, powered by a nuclear reactor and have giant whiskers made of radio antenas then no, we can't have robot cats. Another reason we should look forward to the future.
bascule Posted November 20, 2009 Posted November 20, 2009 This is cool but I'm somewhat dubious about their claims. You can't just equate neocortical columns between different mammal species as if they're identical.
Mokele Posted November 20, 2009 Posted November 20, 2009 The big question is "How does this brain compare to a real cat brain?" After all, how else do you know there's not some huge error?
CharonY Posted November 20, 2009 Posted November 20, 2009 Do artificial cat brains dream about computer mice?
h4tt3n Posted November 23, 2009 Posted November 23, 2009 Hmmm, I'd like to see some very tangible result before getting excited about this. I find it hard to believe that you can make sentient or intelligent beeings by just hooking up enough neurons. Rather than building a cat-sized "brain", I'd prefer if they just simulated - say - a spider brain and connected it to a virtual 3d spider model with the ability to move around inside a simulated physical environment. If they could make this virtual spider act in a way similar to real spiders, including making webs, catching virtual insects and the like, then I'd get excited! Cheers, Mike
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