Journal 14, November 22

IBM makes supercomputer significantly smarter than cat

While I don't think that IBM has literally built a supercomputer as smart as a cat or smarter than a cat, they have completed a super computer capable of modeling neural simulations 4.5 times as complex as a cat brain. According to the researchers the simulation doesn't yet run in real time.

The purpose of whole brain simulations is to allow researchers to experiment with a model they can directly manipulate. The simulation allows them it run reproducible tests and create snapshots of activity with greater resolution than with real test subjects. While the simulations aren't real brains they are based on observations of how real neurons and brain tissue interact.

Some of the research is aimed toward understanding chemical interactions within the brain. Other researchers are also working on understanding how the brain actually works. If the researchers could uncover how the brain actually functions advances in technology similar to the fly eye algorithm might be possible for brain simulations. Assuming such algorithms exist in the brain perhaps even ordinary computers would be capable of supporting strong artificial intelligence.

I think the notion that researchers should be careful with these sorts of simulations since they might be alive is rather nonsensical. I think such simulations are after all just simulations and if they cease to be just simulations it will be painfully obvious. Another reason being that the simulations can be reversed or reset to their original state whereas in real brains that clearly can't happen.

Even though it seems nonsensical to me, the reason the ethical questions arise are due to so called emergent behavior of the systems that is as yet not understood similar to the fly eye algorithm in my past post though on a much higher order obviously. I don't think such emergent behavior in a man made system is grounds to call it alive or anything of that nature unless there is other significant evidence such as a human level of intelligence which would be a bit scary to begin with. I thought it was interesting that one person pointed out in the comments of the article this brain simulation may be more complex than a cat's brain but a plain old bucket of slime is also more complex and diverse diverse than a human even if it isn't intelligent. I think the underlying problem with the whole scheme is that the models may not reveal any emergent behavior at all if they do not incorporate all the needed components or are in the wrong configuration similar to how they fly eye algorithm required all the components to be in place for it to work.

Blog post referenced by Arstecnica postThe Cat is Out of the Bag and BlueMatter