By By Paul Wallis Jul 23, 2013 in Technology Sydney - It’s been on the cards for a while, but it’s now here. A microchip which is designed to imitate the human brain’s neurons and synapses. No, it doesn’t mean you’ll have to wear "Intel Inside" stickers. Science Daily: "Our goal is to emulate the properties of biological neurons and synapses directly on microchips," explains Giacomo Indiveri, a professor at the Institute of Neuroinformatics (INI), of the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich. The major challenge was to configure networks made of artificial, i.e. neuromorphic, neurons in such a way that they can perform particular tasks, which the researchers have now succeeded in doing: They developed a neuromorphic system that can carry out complex sensorimotor tasks in real time. The Science Daily article is a bit short on detail about what this means: Synapses: As you can see from the picture, this is no simple process. There are millions of these things in operation, and that’s your “real time” information. washington.edu Neuron: Neurons are complex, too. They carry information and fire it through the synapses. The result, folks, is a set of values from “Yecch!” to Wow!” It’s a mathematician’s paradise, if you can get it right. Complete neuron cell diagram Wikipedia This is the information you use for every action. So getting a chip to do this is no minor achievement. Turning it into functional awareness, including meaningful short term memory, is the next hurdle. A sentient machine would need these things. It would also need a complexity never before attempted by any kind of computer. The big breakthrough is context. Normal programs run on dumb, non-aware logical bases. This would allow the creation of context in the sense that humans use it, multi-level logic, alternate logic, and judgment. In a way, this is both how computers can become sentient and how they can become neurotic. To give an example: If you’ve ever played chess against a computer or a game against an AI, you’ll know it operates on values. It will make good moves on that basis, but strictly within the terms of its program. With this addition, it’d know a good move judgmentally, in context with the game. The issue, in fact, is how good those values can get. A few years ago I did a book chapter on “synaptic computers,” with the theory being that a computer could achieve the degrees of subtlety and distinction that human senses can achieve. That’s a very tall order, as I discovered while writing the chapter. Human senses can process miniscule amounts of data. We’re not as good as dogs in smell or hearing, but like all organisms, we’ve had a few billion years to practice them. Expecting chips to do this is a major, irrevocable step out of infancy for computer processing. Synaptic computers, if able to even approximate the values we have for sensory inputs, would have done in the blink of an eye what life has taken so long to achieve. It’s a fascinating thought. It may well be possible to add interfaces with humans to allow better processing of some information, for example. There’s almost no limit to where this class of technology might go. There’s no limit to possible problems, either. Whether or not something as oblique and spontaneous as a human brain would take kindly to a chip is debatable, at this level of technology. On a higher level, the chip may be as addictive as a smartphone, and maybe as useful. The Science Daily article is a bit short on detail about what this means:As you can see from the picture, this is no simple process. There are millions of these things in operation, and that’s your “real time” information.Neurons are complex, too. They carry information and fire it through the synapses. The result, folks, is a set of values from “Yecch!” to Wow!” It’s a mathematician’s paradise, if you can get it right.This is the information you use for every action. So getting a chip to do this is no minor achievement. Turning it into functional awareness, including meaningful short term memory, is the next hurdle. A sentient machine would need these things. It would also need a complexity never before attempted by any kind of computer.The big breakthrough is context. Normal programs run on dumb, non-aware logical bases. This would allow the creation of context in the sense that humans use it, multi-level logic, alternate logic, and judgment. In a way, this is both how computers can become sentient and how they can become neurotic.To give an example: If you’ve ever played chess against a computer or a game against an AI, you’ll know it operates on values. It will make good moves on that basis, but strictly within the terms of its program. With this addition, it’d know a good move judgmentally, in context with the game.The issue, in fact, is how good those values can get. A few years ago I did a book chapter on “synaptic computers,” with the theory being that a computer could achieve the degrees of subtlety and distinction that human senses can achieve. That’s a very tall order, as I discovered while writing the chapter.Human senses can process miniscule amounts of data. We’re not as good as dogs in smell or hearing, but like all organisms, we’ve had a few billion years to practice them. Expecting chips to do this is a major, irrevocable step out of infancy for computer processing. Synaptic computers, if able to even approximate the values we have for sensory inputs, would have done in the blink of an eye what life has taken so long to achieve.It’s a fascinating thought. It may well be possible to add interfaces with humans to allow better processing of some information, for example. There’s almost no limit to where this class of technology might go.There’s no limit to possible problems, either. Whether or not something as oblique and spontaneous as a human brain would take kindly to a chip is debatable, at this level of technology. On a higher level, the chip may be as addictive as a smartphone, and maybe as useful. This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com More about synaptic function microchips, neural function electronic processors, Synapses, Neuron, Intel More news from synaptic function mi... neural function elec... Synapses Neuron Intel