The Human Brain Project launched on Monday at a conference in Switzerland and its goals are lofty. A large group of scientists are hoping to create the world’s fastest computer, a device that operates like a human brain.
The project combines the resources of 135 science institutions and government entities to create the world’s most powerful computer brain.
At a cost of $1.6 billion the project won’t come cheap, however, it will be 1,000 times faster than even the fastest computers available on the market today.
Scientists acknowledge that the human brain is the most complex and fastest computer in existence, therefore it makes sense that they would attempt to replicate its powers.
In the first part of the project scientists plan to spend a decade better understanding the functions of the human brain. The group wants to know how we learn, think, see, and hear.
A computer can currently perform one quadrillion operations per second and the Human Brain Project wants to greatly increase that limit. The group is counting on IBM, Intel, and other manufacturers who have promised the first exascale machines by 2020.
Along with faster processors, developers also need better memory types, and new storage techniques that can hold an incredibly large amount of content.
According to the Human Brain Project website the goal is “to piece together our rapidly growing knowledge of the human brain.”
Now only does the group hope to create a super fast brain-like computer, they also want to better understand the brain in order to help heal it.
Before you go building a shelter to protect yourself from the rise of the Terminators, the group assures us that they are simply using the human brain to create better processing functions, not to create Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
