One Step Closer to Androids Taking Over the Earth?

    The link between the human brain and computers is growing ever stronger. While both computers and the brain perform functions, complete calculations, organize and analyze data, etc., technological and scientific research has yet to bring the two together. That is, until now. 

     IBM, International Business Machines Corporations, is a company that has been at the forefront of the technological and computing industries since its establishment in 1911. Leading the industry in developments in computer hardware and software, the company has now turned its focus on to using biological and artificial components to form a computing device, as well as using computers to examine and understand the brain. 

     For its new computing designs, IBM has drawn inspiration from a complex template found in nature; the human brain. Taking the idea of using fluids, like the blood in the brain, to cool the computer and to distribute electrical power, like in the nervous system, the prototype would allow processors to be more efficient and compact in three-dimensional designs, rather than slower connections which are spread out on a larger two-dimensional plane as in current computers designs.

    In examining the brain, IBM has donated computing equipment to a European research project called the Human Brain Project. The project focuses on using computers to simulate the functions and mechanisms of the brain; from animal brains to human brains, both on a macroscopic and microscopic level. Such research would lead to breakthroughs in how the brain is affected by diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and other neurological and psychological disorders. 

     Research in both of these areas are linked with IBM's idea of the cognitive system. That is, where computers are not simply programmed to perform tasks or calculate data, but are aware of their surroundings, can perceive the situation, make judgments, communicate, and even learn from mistakes. This idea is similar to what has long been sought after, artificial intelligence. 

     Although long sought after, the dream of creating an artificial intelligence, AI for short, has been just that; a dream. Creating such as system requires an understanding of the brain that, until now, had not been proficiently reached. Further setbacks have been the lack of the necessary components or designs to match the power of the brain or match its efficient power consumption. One milestone was the creation of IBM's Watson, a supercomputer capable of processing and understanding human speech, even winning the game show Jeopardy. Even then, Watson was nothing compared to abilities of the human brain; "he" used 85kW of power to function, while the human brain uses merely 20W. 

     These restrictions might soon be overcome, however. Armed with a new design based on the human brain itself, IBM might hold the key to developing AI. By utilizing a system of more densely compacted processors in a three-dimensional space, the computer is able to have more efficient and complex links, allowing data to travel more quickly and efficiently, as in the human brain. Normally, this dense compaction of processors would lead to overheating of the chips, but the human brain has provided a solution for that as well; cooling fluids which run through the chips, drawing heat away. This cooling system is called Aquasar. Further developments in this prototype have led to the use of a liquid power system, rather than wire distribution. This design more closely relates to that of the brain; one where liquids provides power to perform functions, and maintain homeostasis as well. 

    With such developments, IBM has grown ever closer to matching the computational power of the brain. Not simply trying to mimic the brain, but attempting to understand its inner workings has not only allowed computing technology to become more efficient, but allows for further research into the brain, leading, hopefully, into what the company calls "neuromorphic computing". Computers with the cognitive power, energy efficiency, and physical efficiency matching that of nature's greatest computing device, the human brain. While IBM hopes this will lead to "machines that could find the best places to invest money, bring new depth and accuracy to medical diagnoses, research the appropriate legal precedents in court cases, or give people help when they dial a call center", it is also brings us one step closer to that long sought after dream of artificial intelligence. 

     While today research is being simply to match the design and efficiency of the human brain, it is not far off to imagine computers that can match and perform the functions of the human brain; computers which can learn and program themselves. Computers which think for themselves. And what happens when these computers are given a voice to communicate and body, a means of transportation? Are these developments leading to humanoid robots, androids? Will we be able to control the power that we will create?

Source