This is where Canada’s specific contribution to the brain race comes in. Unless it can be explained away as an illusion, consciousness will remain the essential difference between virtual and real brains. Just as a single molecule of water is not wet, neither is a single neuron conscious, and while the behaviour of water at ever greater scales is well understood, the same is not true of neurons. It is a highly complicated property that only comes about when countless parts operate together in a certain way.
‘The basic problem is that people think of consciousness as some kind of essence’Ĭonsciousness is an especially big problem for fake brains. I’ve met lots of people who think it is a terrible idea.” “This is a project dressed up to get flagship money… I’ve never met anybody who thought it was a good idea. I don’t think that pouring it into a project that most people in the field think is crazy is the right thing to do,” said Geoffrey Hinton, a leading expert in machine learning at the University of Toronto. I think putting a lot of money into understanding how the brain works is an excellent idea. Even with the right technology and enough computing power, fake brains might turn out to be like cold fusion or perpetual motion - ill-conceived pipe dreams that proper scientists have abandoned to cranks and fanatics.
It might be impossible.īrains might not be like cuckoo clocks, such that the Swiss can design one, build it, and expect it to go. These schemes are cutting-edge efforts to fulfill the old scientific dream of making a brain from scratch, or at least replicate the workings of the meaty computers inside our skulls. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt.
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