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This is a super exciting program and defiantly a step towards the singularity. The director Henry Markram says they will complete it by 2019. Now he has his skeptics but from I have studied I have confidence he will complete the project on time and the impact on society will be huge. That includes but defiantly not limited to better AI with a consciousness.
Even by the standards of the TED conference, Henry Markram’s 2009 TEDGlobal talk was a mind-bender. He took the stage of the Oxford Playhouse, clad in the requisite dress shirt and blue jeans, and announced a plan that—if it panned out—would deliver a fully sentient hologram within a decade. He dedicated himself to wiping out all mental disorders and creating a self-aware artificial intelligence. And the South African–born neuroscientist pronounced that he would accomplish all this through an insanely ambitious attempt to build a complete model of a human brain—from synapses to hemispheres—and simulate it on a supercomputer. Markram was proposing a project that has bedeviled AI researchers for decades, that most had presumed was impossible. He wanted to build a working mind from the ground up.
In the four years since Markram’s speech, he hasn’t backed off a nanometer. The self-assured scientist claims that the only thing preventing scientists from understanding the human brain in its entirety—from the molecular level all the way to the mystery of consciousness—is a lack of ambition. If only neuroscience would follow his lead, he insists, his Human Brain Project could simulate the functions of all 86 billion neurons in the human brain, and the 100 trillion connections that link them. And once that’s done, once you’ve built a plug-and-play brain, anything is possible. You could take it apart to figure out the causes of brain diseases. You could rig it to robotics and develop a whole new range of intelligent technologies. You could strap on a pair of virtual reality glasses and experience a brain other than your own.
This is a super exciting program and defiantly a step towards the singularity. The director Henry Markram says they will complete it by 2019. Now he has his skeptics but from I have studied I have confidence he will complete the project on time and the impact on society will be huge. That includes but defiantly not limited to better AI with a consciousness.
Even by the standards of the TED conference, Henry Markram’s 2009 TEDGlobal talk was a mind-bender. He took the stage of the Oxford Playhouse, clad in the requisite dress shirt and blue jeans, and announced a plan that—if it panned out—would deliver a fully sentient hologram within a decade. He dedicated himself to wiping out all mental disorders and creating a self-aware artificial intelligence. And the South African–born neuroscientist pronounced that he would accomplish all this through an insanely ambitious attempt to build a complete model of a human brain—from synapses to hemispheres—and simulate it on a supercomputer. Markram was proposing a project that has bedeviled AI researchers for decades, that most had presumed was impossible. He wanted to build a working mind from the ground up.
In the four years since Markram’s speech, he hasn’t backed off a nanometer. The self-assured scientist claims that the only thing preventing scientists from understanding the human brain in its entirety—from the molecular level all the way to the mystery of consciousness—is a lack of ambition. If only neuroscience would follow his lead, he insists, his Human Brain Project could simulate the functions of all 86 billion neurons in the human brain, and the 100 trillion connections that link them. And once that’s done, once you’ve built a plug-and-play brain, anything is possible. You could take it apart to figure out the causes of brain diseases. You could rig it to robotics and develop a whole new range of intelligent technologies. You could strap on a pair of virtual reality glasses and experience a brain other than your own.
It's an interesting article, but as you read he has his critics and even he admits that he doesn't know whether his project if successful would be able to create a consciousness. If the project fails then AI research funding will likely suffer.
It's an interesting article, but as you read he has his critics and even he admits that he doesn't know whether his project if successful would be able to create a consciousness. If the project fails then AI research funding will likely suffer.
While this is a very important project and one I will be following very closely it's still only 1 of many working on AI. While its success would help a lot even if he did not reach his ultimate goal his findings will help many areas of related science. This was the project I asked Ray about when he reminded me not to get focused on one project. I will admit its very hard not to though given the scope of this project and the American one that Preaident Obama announced. Once we successfully reverse engineer the brain I think a lot of our questions about the brain including where our consciousness comes from will be answered.
2019 is going to be a interesting year!
Last edited by Josseppie; 05-29-2013 at 07:44 AM..
One of the reasons I want to study the singularity is because I understand the political and social ramifications will be bigger then anyone realizes. In fact the reason its called the singularity is because no one knows what society will be like after 2045.
I will address your questions one by one.
They wont have a choice. Just like the majority of people on the planet have cell phones and are getting connected to the internet once the singularity hits everyone will be included. It will not be like the sci fi movies that show the elite divide. Now I agree at first some of the things I talk about, like reverse aging and turning off the fat gene, will be expensive ( I am lucky because I have the resource to be in the first group) but in time the cost will go down but the singularity is different as it will impact the entire world at the same time.
I think it will. To be honest I think schools (from K-12 to colleges and universities) will be obsolete by the middle part of this century.
It could. That is why we need to make sure that does not happen.
Technological unemployment is I think the biggest problem facing the nation in the next 10 t0 20 years. I posted this video before but I don't think you have seen it and it does a great job of addressing this very concern. Its form 60 Minutes.
At this point it can't be stopped. As the 60 Minutes report says for better or worse its coming.
Does a part of me fear what is coming? Yes uncertainty is always a little scary. However its coming and the only way we can continue to be successful is with knowledge and in time to keep up with the AI we will have to merge with computers. My plan is to be among the first people in the 2020's but I know many people will choose to wait till the 2030's either way its not a long way off.
Re the 60 minutes video, I have been saying that for years, and people have been denying it. Still do.
When reality sneaks up on them, they are going to be stunned.
I was talking to my uncle about this yesterday and he said the same thing that he had heard about it for years. This is relatively new to me but makes a lot of sense to me now.
I've never googled this but just thought of it today, in all the researching I've done on future technologies, all the predictions of Kurzweil, I've never read or heard about how we could one day control or seriously influence the weather. Such as prevent things like hurricanes or tornadoes from ever forming or immediately neutralizing or at least minimizing their impact as soon as they form. Bringing heavy rains to area of drought, or stopping rain from hitting potential flood areas. Or what about types of bio domes, areas where there is specific but not now usually occurring weather, if people love a certain type of weather there are specific zones set up where that is always the weather. With all the other advances spoken of this seems possible but have never heard of any research or that this was being worked towards.
I've never googled this but just thought of it today, in all the researching I've done on future technologies, all the predictions of Kurzweil, I've never read or heard about how we could one day control or seriously influence the weather. Such as prevent things like hurricanes or tornadoes from ever forming or immediately neutralizing or at least minimizing their impact as soon as they form. Bringing heavy rains to area of drought, or stopping rain from hitting potential flood areas. Or what about types of bio domes, areas where there is specific but not now usually occurring weather, if people love a certain type of weather there are specific zones set up where that is always the weather. With all the other advances spoken of this seems possible but have never heard of any research or that this was being worked towards.
Ray Kurzweil mostly deals with information technology like computers and AI and the impact they will have on society given the fact they advance exponentially. Technology that has little to do with information technology he does not talk about as there is no way to predict how it will advance. I think that is the case in your example. Technologically speaking we are no where near being able to control the weather and since its not a form of information technology it's nearly impossible to know when we will.
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