New Computer Chip ‘Thinks’ Like a Brain Cell

http://planetsave.com/2011/08/19/new-computer-chip-thinks-like-a-brain-cell/

A collaboration between IBM and DARPA has produced “next generation” computer chips that adapt well to unexpected inputs due to their structural mimicking of our brain’s neurons. Applications for these “neuro-synaptic chips” include analyzing financial market fluctuations and even predicting tsunamis.

Five years ago, there was considerable talk amongst IT scientists about an innovation in computer chip design/technology dubbed “adaptive chips”; these theoretical chips would more closely approximate human brain cells (neurons) — they would actually “think” — and allow a new form or computer processing “behavior” and advance the field of Artificial Intelligence dramatically. And, as always, there were many skeptics who doubted that such behavioral innovations were possible.

But now, such chips (and their functional versatility) are no longer theoretical, thanks to a Cognitive Computing Project funded by IBM and a 40 million dollar grant from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). This current research project was a continuation of IBM’s 4 year (2006 – 2009), super-computing research project in which its scientists partially simulated a mouse brain, then completely simulated a rat’s brain, and finally, simulated just 1% of a human’s cerebral cortex. In a significant advancement in neuromorphic machine intelligence, IBM announced the successful development of the chips this past week.

Technically referred to as neuro-synaptic chips, these chips contain numerous digital processors which are functionally akin to our brain’s neurons — complete with synapses (which in the human brain are vital to memory and learning) and axons which serve as the “data pathways” between chip cores.

They process. Software is what will make AI.

We call all kiss our asses goodbye.... The Apocalypse is only a matter of time now.