From Newsgroup: alt.tv.star-trek.tos
From Address: sdlitvin{at}earthlink.net
Subject: Move over Daystrom: Computers that operate like brains are here


A new breed of computer chips that operate more like the brain may be 
about to narrow the gulf between artificial and natural 
computationubetween circuits that crunch through logical operations at 
blistering speed and a mechanism honed by evolution to process and act 
on sensory input from the real world. Advances in neuroscience and chip 
technology have made it practical to build devices that, on a small 
scale at least, process data the way a mammalian brain does. These 
oneuromorphico chips may be the missing piece of many promising but 
unfinished projects in artificial intelligence, such as cars that drive 
themselves reliably in all conditions, and smartphones that act as 
competent conversational assistants....

oModern computers are inherited from calculators, good for crunching 
numbers,o says Dharmendra Modha, a senior researcher at IBM Research in 
Almaden, California. oBrains evolved in the real world.o Modha leads one 
of two groups that have built computer chips with a basic architecture 
copied from the mammalian brain under a $100 million project called 
Synapse, funded by the PentagonAs Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
The prototypes have already shown early sparks of intelligence, 
processing images very efficiently and gaining new skills in a way that 
resembles biological learning. IBM has created tools to let software 
engineers program these brain-inspired chips; the other prototype, at 
HRL Laboratories in Malibu, California, will soon be installed inside a 
tiny robotic aircraft, from which it will learn to recognize its 
surroundings....

IBM makes neuromorphic chips by using collections of 6,000 transistors 
to emulate the electrical spiking behavior of a neuron and then wiring 
those silicon neurons together. ModhaAs strategy for combining them to 
build a brainlike system is inspired by studies on the cortex of the 
brain, the wrinkly outer layer. Although different parts of the cortex 
have different functions, such as controlling language or movement, they 
are all made up of so-called microcolumns, repeating clumps of 100 to 
250 neurons. Modha unveiled his version of a microcolumn in 2011. A 
speck of silicon little bigger than a pinhead, it contained 256 silicon 
neurons and a block of memory that defines the properties of up to 
262,000 synaptic connections between them. Programming those synapses 
correctly can create a network that processes and reacts to information 
much as the neurons of a real brain do....

On another California hillside 300 miles to the south, the other part of 
DARPAAs project aims to make chips that mimic brains even more closely. 
HRL, which looks out over Malibu from the foothills of the Santa Monica 
Mountains, was founded by Hughes Aircraft and now operates as a joint 
venture of General Motors and Boeing. With a koi pond, palm trees, and 
banana plants, the entrance resembles a hotel from HollywoodAs golden 
era. It also boasts a plaque commemorating the first working laser, 
built in 1960 at what was then called Hughes Research Labs....

On a bench in a windowless lab, Narayan SrinivasaAs chip sits at the 
center of a tangle of wires. The activity of its 576 artificial neurons 
appears on a computer screen as a parade of spikes, an EEG for a silicon 
brain. The HRL chip has neurons and synapses much like IBMAs. But like 
the neurons in your own brain, those on HRLAs chip adjust their synaptic 
connections when exposed to new data. In other words, the chip learns 
through experience.

The HRL chip mimics two learning phenomena in brains. One is that 
neurons become more or less sensitive to signals from another neuron 
depending on how frequently those signals arrive. The other is more 
complex: a process believed to support learning and memory, known as 
spike-timing-dependent plasticity. This causes neurons to become more 
responsive to other neurons that have tended to closely match their own 
signaling activity in the past. If groups of neurons are working 
together constructively, the connections between them strengthen, while 
less useful connections fall dormant.

Results from experiments with simulated versions of the chip are 
impressive. The chip played a virtual game of Pong, just as IBMAs chip 
did. But unlike IBMAs chip, HRLAs wasnAt programmed to play the 
gameuonly to move its paddle, sense the ball, and receive feedback that 
either rewarded a successful shot or punished a miss. A system of 120 
neurons started out flailing, but within about five rounds it had become 
a skilled player. oYou donAt program it,o Srinivasa says. oYou just say 
aGood job,A aBad job,A and it figures out what it should be doing.o If 
extra balls, paddles, or opponents are added, the network quickly adapts 
to the changes.

http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/522476/thinking-in-silicon/


-- 
Steven L.
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