This is a visual reconstruction from array-tomography data of synapses in the mouse somatosensory cortex, which is responsive to whisker stimulation.(Credit: Stephen Smith/Stanford)
Posted on 11/18/2010 2:31:28 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
The human brain is truly awesome.
A typical, healthy one houses some 200 billion nerve cells, which are connected to one another via hundreds of trillions of synapses. Each synapse functions like a microprocessor, and tens of thousands of them can connect a single neuron to other nerve cells. In the cerebral cortex alone, there are roughly 125 trillion synapses, which is about how many stars fill 1,500 Milky Way galaxies.
This is a visual reconstruction from array-tomography data of synapses in the mouse somatosensory cortex, which is responsive to whisker stimulation.(Credit: Stephen Smith/Stanford)
These synapses are, of course, so tiny (less than a thousandth of a millimeter in diameter) that humans haven't been able to see with great clarity what exactly they do and how, beyond knowing that their numbers vary over time. That is until now.
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have spent the past few years engineering a new imaging model, which they call array tomography, in conjunction with novel computational software, to stitch together image slices into a three-dimensional image that can be rotated, penetrated and navigated. Their work appears in the journal Neuron this week.
To test their model, the team took tissue samples from a mouse whose brain had been bioengineered to make larger neurons in the cerebral cortex express a fluorescent protein (found in jellyfish), making them glow yellow-green. Because of this glow, the researchers were able to see synapses against the background of neurons.
They found that the brain's complexity is beyond anything they'd imagined, almost to the point of being beyond belief, says Stephen Smith, a professor of molecular and cellular physiology and senior author of the paper describing the study:
(Excerpt) Read more at news.cnet.com ...
this is why i laugh when i read about the latest artificial intelligence work and discoveries. This and the fact that the human mind is a non-linear device. So much for those morons working in AI that think it is all linear thinking...truly morons
Just based on quick bit of googling, you could estimate another 20 years or so, assuming that Moore’s Law holds beyond 2015 (not clear at this point whether it will).
And if it holds beyond that, it looks like we could see some truly massive change between 2030 and 2040.
And even more massive change between 2040 and 2050, with the possibility of entities a thousand times smarter than human beings around 40 years from now.
No one who truly understands Moore’s Law laughs. They may have reasons why they think it’s going to peter out, or thoughts about other dynamics applying into the mix, but they most definitely don’t laugh.
Howdy. If it's okay, I'd like to get on whatever ping list this was. Wow!!
Thanks! - Dayglored
Most of those Freepers tolerate my frequent pings on a multitude of topics...sometimes even one toipics of the day.
But I wonderaround a lot...Not as far back as Blam though.
I was reading a good article on Astronomy last night.
AI researchers believe that AI is linear where as the human mind is very non-linear. If you want to go from A—>Z then the non-linear mind gets there faster versus the morons in AI who think the answer is linear.
Back later.
Still a Good tune!
What makes you think people who work in AI believe human thought is linear? Not every advancement in AI is aimed at creating a robot that does everything humans do. This is typically called “hard AI” and most AI research actually has very little to do with it.
On the other hand, virtually every piece of electronic equipment you use has something in it that comes from AI research: your car (anti-lock brakes, all-wheel drive), your mobile phone (various sensors like the accelerometer), your computer (ever done a Google search before?).
It's simply not true that AI researchers believe that intelligence (which I assume is what you mean) necessarily is or should be "linear."
Every AI researcher on earth is well aware that there are enormous differences in the way that AI (especially current AI) and the human brain function. AI structures and human brain structures are entirely and completely different. How could their functioning possibly be the same?
Perhaps what you mean is that AI researchers believe that linear electronic processes are capable of simulating what you might call the massively-parallel functioning of the human brain. But while computers already are, to some degree, capable of simulating or mimicing human thought processes, anyone in AI knows that this simulation is highly artificial and contrived.
Or maybe you're saying that AI researchers are dedicated to trying to simulate a nonlinear process linearly. But this isn't true, either. Even today's desktop computers, which make no attempt to simulate human brain function, often operate now on multiple cores.
Or perhaps you mean something entirely different?
What do you mean, "linear"?
well maybe i am wrong. But talk to a artist sometime to try to figure out how they go froim A—Z, to me it sure is not linear and all AI seems to me to be based on massive paraelll linear process to achinve a non-linera result.
I think their egos are going down the wrong path.
I thought that Moore’s law was based on semiconductors and saturates at a certain level because semi conductive materials become fully conductive when they get too small. I suppose a change in transistor material could keep things going, giving us 32 years before the machines take over.
A synapse is more akin to a microprocessor than a simple switch in that it can both store and process. God is a pretty good engineer.
Yes...me too.
The closest I got was with some of the notables at The Chateau in the mid-60's to the early 70's. I was convinced to stay with my day job (chip makings) because I couldn't sing or play guitar, lol.
And yet we have learned to about 10% of our brain....some less.
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