Henry Markram discusses who'll be the first to die in the robot apocalypse (not confirmed).
(Credit: TED Conference)Understanding why we, as humans, do the things we do is one of the pieces of the puzzle of our existence. Too bad we may have to wait another 10 years for some definitive answers.
This week at the TED Global conference, Henry Markram, director of the Blue Brain Project, revealed that he and his team in Switzerland are aiming to build a functioning, artificial human brain within the next 10 years.
The team started out a few years ago by attempting to create a fully functioning artificial rat brain using the IBM supercomputer, Blue Gene. The thought was if they could successfully replicate a rat's brain, they would then leverage their knowledge to do the same with a human one.
When they began their experiment, the digital rat brain only fired neurons when prodded by a simulated electrical current. Recently, however, the neurons have begun spontaneously organizing themselves into a more complex pattern.
According to the scientists, this is the beginning of the self-organizing neurological patterns that eventually, in more complex mammal brains, become personality.
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Giant fonts are the way of the future.
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CBS Interactive)Hard to believe there are still enough novice computer users still out there that a company would develop a whole line of computers specifically geared to them. Hard for me to believe, I should say, because BenQ sees things differently.
At CES, BenQ unveiled its first ever PC, the nScreen. The nScreen is being tailored for novice ...
Read the full post at CNET's CES 2009 blog.
Fun? Yes, but I wouldn't put too much stock into it.
I have to admit, I didn't see the point of Sonic Lighter. I mean, it was cool to see real-time mapping of people using it, but there was no real point. With the latest version, however, that's changed.
Smule has released Sonic Lighter 1.2.1 Special Campaign 2008 Edition for the iPhone. Instead of just lighting a normal orange flame, with the new version you now get to express yourself politically (somewhat), by choosing either the red (McCain) or blue (Obama) flame.
The coolest thing about this is the ability to see, in real-time, which flame is more prevalent in different parts of the world. If you want to get even more detailed, Smule has a Google-powered map at its site that allows you to pinpoint the flames down to the city or even a stretch of road.
Now, this is what I call instant polling results. Is it accurate? Hmmm, not so much. Unfortunately we still have to wait 'til next week to see just how much stock we can put into polling. Sonic Lighter 1.2.1 is available at the App Store for $0.99, but is a free upgrade if you already own Sonic Lighter.
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Eric Franklin's colleagues once had the following to say to him: "Eric, you've been doing this performance testing thing for over 10 years now. How about you try something different?" To which Eric responded, "How about you shut the #%$@! up?" This candid attitude
allows him to go toe-to-toe with the most extreme of personalities, including that of Dong Ngo. This bio was written by Eric Franklin.
Dong Ngo is a knowledgeable, opinionated individual who wants to convince the world that he's just a normal person; but he hasn't had much success. According to him, this is because the world itself is abnormal. Dong loves traveling and is well-versed in several languages. He, unfortunately, is not so well-versed in English. Still, it's best to ask him questions. From networking and how to optimize your system, to turning a strange place into home or what the meaning of life is…most of the time, he has the answers. The question is: Will he make himself understood? Subscribe and find out!
