Human Brain Project

 Another interesting find. The Human Brain Project (HBP) is now being initiated in the European Union.

The aim: simulating the human brain inside a supercomputer. A very exciting project.

Once completed, its potential applications are beyond enormous, from developing new cures to illnesses/diseases, new ways of solving computational problems, that and much more than I can conceive right now.

I could almost envision one day when these new thinking machines become the norm where everyone would have one in their homes as a household computer, or better yet, fitted into something as portable and miniaturized as a smartphone.

Here's their opening video presentation:
Here's a short excerpt of the transcript:

"100 billion neurons, connected by 100,000 billion synapses. The human brain is the most complex machine we know of, and the most mysterious one."

"We face huge issues in neuroscience, to understand how the pieces of the brain fit and work together.

We face huge issues in medicine, to understand how to objectively diagnose and treat brain diseases."

"This is a big big challenge. It'll have an enormous impact on the health of the aged."

"European researchers propose a radically new approach to study the human mind. Their idea is simple. To simulate a complete human brain in a supercomputer."

"We have a giant intellectual problem to solve here."

"As a scientist, I mean it is really the, central project for brain science."

"And that could revolutionize computing the way we do it today."

"The Human Brain Project brings together hundreds of scientists from leading European research institutions. It is one of the most ambitious neuroscience projects in the world."

"What we are proposing is to establish a radically new foundation, to explore and understand the brain, its diseases, and to use that knowledge, to build new computing technologies."

"The project is coordinated by EPFL located in Lausanne, Switzerland. The researchers will systematically study neurons, the building blocks of the brain. They will collect and consolidate all the biological data produced by scientists around the world. They will integrate this knowledge into a massive simulation running on a supercomputer. The result will be the most accurate model of the human brain ever produced."

 To end off, I'll post this TED Talk by Henry Markram on the work that's being done. Near the end of the middle there's a really awesome visual simulation of one particular brain and how it sees a rose. Totally mind-blowing stuff.