[Kosh]

IBM simulates a feline brain

A computer with the power of a human brain is not yet near. But this week researchers from IBM Corp. are reporting that they've simulated a cat's cerebral cortex, the thinking part of the brain, using a massive supercomputer. The computer has 147,456 processors (most modern PCs have just one or two processors) and 144 terabytes of main memory — 100,000 times as much as your computer has.

The scientists had previously simulated 40 percent of a mouse's brain in 2006, a rat's full brain in 2007, and 1 percent of a human's cerebral cortex this year, using progressively bigger supercomputers.

The latest feat, being presented at a supercomputing conference in Portland, Ore., doesn't mean the computer thinks like a cat, or that it is the progenitor of a race of robo-cats.

The simulation, which runs 100 times slower than an actual cat's brain, is more about watching how thoughts are formed in the brain and how the roughly 1 billion neurons and 10 trillion synapses in a cat's brain work together.

Pretty cool huh?

[General Battuta]

Holy ****, man. This stuff is real.

[Aardwolf]

Aw, I wanted a robotic kitty.

[High Max]

.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Does the simulated cat brain have the urge to chase the simulated rat brain?

[blackhole]

Does the simulated cat brain have the urge to chase the simulated rat brain?

lol

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Also does it only run about 2 or 3 hours a day and go into sleep mode when it gets warm?

[Stormkeeper]

NEKO!!!

[Mongoose]

Holy ****, man. This stuff is real.

Yeah, seriously.  Imagine the implications--LASER POINTER!  GET IT GET IT GET IT!!!

[NGTM-1R]

So basically, they've not got the whole instinctual behavior part. That sorta ruins it.

[Colonol Dekker]

It doesn't even state if the thing has a knowledge base and/or external stimuli. It's only a simulation of the limit of our (IBMs) current undertanding of how a cat brain works.
 
 
Still. . . . . One step closer to SKYNET I want my phased plasma rifle with 40 watt range.

[Ziame]

You know what sucks? Games will use only two processors of all of them anyway ;(

[Dilmah G]

Still. . . . . One step closer to SKYNET I want my phased plasma rifle with 40 watt range.

Just without the Nuclear Apocalypse.

[Sushi]

I thought this was going to be about meow mix.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTunhRVyREU&feature=related

[Nuke]

ever built a city out of legos, then used a cat and laser [pointer to completely demolish that city. now emagine that scaled up to the real world (and you thought the airborn laser was part of a missile shield). you would have one serious weapon of mass destruction. MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

[Kosh]

It's only a simulation of the limit of our (IBMs) current undertanding of how a cat brain works.

It's a simulation to extend that understanding.

[Colonol Dekker]

If they don't fully understand how a cats brain works already, how can they be sure the simulation is accurate and why publish that they've duplicated it in the first place? For that note i'm not all that impressed with the concept, unless they can map every neuron and synapse (not unlike the teleporter topic) then it won't be a genuine model, it'll be an interpretation which is subject to fall short of the originals potential. Which in my opinion renders the exercise pointless as they want to make a genuine simulated model right?

[General Battuta]

That's silly. You want them to go from [no simulated cat brain] to [perfectly simulated cat brain] without any intermediate steps, and you deride those intermediate steps as pointless?

[NGTM-1R]

True, but Dekker has a point. The simulation could be in error, introducing errors to the process and ultimately delaying it. We don't understand brain function so well that the possiblity can be discounted reasonably. Or at all. 50/50 is about as generous as I think is safe to get with this or previous attempts.

[Colonol Dekker]

That's silly. You want them to go from [no simulated cat brain] to [perfectly simulated cat brain] without any intermediate steps, and you deride those intermediate steps as pointless?

 
 
I'm not saying that. I'm saying they shouldn't announce that they've simulated a cerebral cortex til they're sure it is. For example, and bear with me as i'm deathly tired and this is only to get my perspective across; for example imagine that ibm are people who've never seen an aeroplane before. They assume the only characteristic of an aeroplane is the ability to fly. So they research and develop a helicopter and because it can fly they announce it as an aeroplane.
 
See I don't mind about the development process as long as the description is accurate.