Derrick
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The Blue Brain Project are simulating elements of a rat brain and claim that it is possible to see an artificial human brain within 10 years.
Henry Markram, the director of the Blue Brain Project confidently declared at the TED Global conference in Oxford: “It is not impossible to build a human brain and we can do it in 10 years,” he said.
The project began in 2005 with the aim to reverse engineer the mammalian brain from lab data focusing specifically on the neocortex.
According to Markram, “it is a bit more than cataloguing because you have to describe and discover all the rules of communication, the rules of connectivity.”
The project now has a software model of “tens of thousands” of neurons – each one of which is different – which has allowed them to digitally construct an artificial neocortical column reported the BBC.
What is impressive, besides the obvious fact that these scientists are simulating the human brain, is the processing power used to make the model come alive.
Algorithms are fed into a supercomputer but for each neuron one laptop is needed equating to ten thousand laptops in total.
The Blue Brain Project is using an IBM Blue Gene machine with 10,000 processors to assist.
If this project is successful Markram believes it could help treat some of the 2 billion people who suffer from brain impairment.
Henry Markram, the director of the Blue Brain Project confidently declared at the TED Global conference in Oxford: “It is not impossible to build a human brain and we can do it in 10 years,” he said.
The project began in 2005 with the aim to reverse engineer the mammalian brain from lab data focusing specifically on the neocortex.
According to Markram, “it is a bit more than cataloguing because you have to describe and discover all the rules of communication, the rules of connectivity.”
The project now has a software model of “tens of thousands” of neurons – each one of which is different – which has allowed them to digitally construct an artificial neocortical column reported the BBC.
What is impressive, besides the obvious fact that these scientists are simulating the human brain, is the processing power used to make the model come alive.
Algorithms are fed into a supercomputer but for each neuron one laptop is needed equating to ten thousand laptops in total.
The Blue Brain Project is using an IBM Blue Gene machine with 10,000 processors to assist.
If this project is successful Markram believes it could help treat some of the 2 billion people who suffer from brain impairment.