The Blue Brain

Originally posted by epiphinehas
This is probably the most fascinating article I've read this year:

http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/03/out_of_the_blue.php

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Here are a few excerpts:

"In fact, the model is so successful that its biggest restrictions are now technological. "We have already shown that the model can scale up," Markram says. "What is holding us bac ...[text shortened]... be known."

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Please share any thoughts or impressions...

Wait...this article claims we can simulate a human brain with a giant computer? I'd like to see that!

Originally posted by AThousandYoung
Wait...this article claims we can simulate a human brain with a giant computer? I'd like to see that!

From the Blue Brain Project FAQ
http://bluebrain.epfl.ch/page18924.html

Do you believe a computer can ever be an exact simulation of the human brain?

This is neither likely nor necessary. It will be very difficult because, in the brain, every molecule is a powerful computer and we would need to simulate the structure and function of trillions upon trillions of molecules as well as all the rules that govern how they interact. You would literally need computers that are trillions of times bigger and faster than anything existing today. Mammals can make very good copies of each other, we do not need to make computer copies of mammals. That is not our goal. We want to try to understand how the biological system functions and malfunctions so that this knowledge can benefit mankind.

Is the brain like a computer?

In some ways yes, but in most ways it is not at all like a computer. The brain performs many analog operations which cannot be performed by computers and in many cases it achieves hybrid digital-analog computing. The most important feature of the brain that makes it different from computers is that it is constantly changing. If the resistors and capacitors in a computer started changing, then it would immediately malfunction, whereas in the brain such equivalent properties change constantly on the time scales of milliseconds to years. The brain is more like a dynamically morphing computer. We are still far from understanding the rules that govern the brain's genetically and environmentally driven self-organization in response to external stimulus.

Benefits of Blue Brain Project
http://bluebrain.epfl.ch/Jahia/site/bluebrain/op/preview/pid/18926


More cool stuff:

Neurobotics: Neurobotics 2008 New Yorker conference
http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/conference/2008/matsuoka