Originally published June 16 2005
IBM attempts to make computerized replica of human brain
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Numerous sci-fi novels and movies have warned us that creating artificial intelligence may be humanity's undoing, but BetaNews has an article which shows IBM is undaunted -- they are currently attempting to create a virtual brain which will recreate the high-speed electro-chemical interactions that take place within the human brain.
In the 1980's futurist Vernor Vinge popularized the notion of a technological singularity where artificial intelligence will one day overtake the human brain and even foil any attempt to comprehend its complexity.
IBM, in partnership with scientists at Switzerland's Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne's (EPFL) Brain and Mind Institute will begin simulating the brain's biological systems and output the data as a working 3-dimensional model that will recreate the high-speed electro-chemical interactions that take place within the brain's interior.
"Modeling the brain at the cellular level is a massive undertaking because of the hundreds of thousands of parameters that need to be taken into account," said Professor Henry Markram, the EPFL project leader.
"IBM has unparalleled experience in biological simulations and the most advanced supercomputing technology in the world.
At EPFL, over a decade of knowledge accumulated from wet lab experiments has been consolidated into a set of empirical data on the Microsoft-architecture of brain's neocortex.
The first phase of the project -- nicknamed "Blue Brain" -- will focus directly on the neocortex, which makes up approximately 85 percent of the human brain.
IBM will equip Blue Brain with four Blue Gene super computer racks.
IBM's Blue Gene systems are presently the world's fastest supercomputers, achieving a peak performance of 5.7 teraflops per single rack system.
Each rack occupies one square meter and energy consumption is reduced from previous IBM systems, changing the economics of super computing and prompting IBM to start its Capacity on Demand service where computing power is leased out to customers in a time share type model.
Under its agreement with IBM, EPFL has entered into a Capacity on Demand type sharing arrangement were IBM says computing power will be leased out to other research projects ranging from post-CMOS technology studies to build smaller transistors to examining folding proteins and their role in diseases like Creutzfeldt-Jakob.
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