Model of functioning brain

S

soggynuts

Veteran XV
Maybe we can finally tell Descartes and dualism to stuf it. Hopefully this is the beginning of proving that a consciousness is directly tied to a physical being. Then the soul savers and all go off themselves because they have nothing to look forward to. Also welcoming our new terminator overlords yadadada...

A Large-Scale Model of the Functioning Brain


A central challenge for cognitive and systems neuroscience is to relate the incredibly complex behavior of animals to the equally complex activity of their brains. Recently described, large-scale neural models have not bridged this gap between neural activity and biological function. In this work, we present a 2.5-million-neuron model of the brain (called “Spaun”) that bridges this gap by exhibiting many different behaviors. The model is presented only with visual image sequences, and it draws all of its responses with a physically modeled arm. Although simplified, the model captures many aspects of neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and psychological behavior, which we demonstrate via eight diverse tasks.
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Or, here's a regular news article for people:
Artificial Brain: 'Spaun' Software Model Mimics Abilities, Flaws Of Human Brain
 
I've always thought the notion of your consciousness being some kind of special electrical/chemical pattern in your brain fascinating. That would mean (in theory) if you win the brain lottery (and we don't blow the planet up before then), it's possible you could be conscious again someday if a human was born with that pattern again.

It would also make cloning humans a lot more confusing (what happens if you have two consciousnesses active at once? :psyduck:).
 
Bughead said:
I've always thought the notion of your consciousness being some kind of special electrical/chemical pattern in your brain fascinating. That would mean (in theory) if you win the brain lottery (and we don't blow the planet up before then), it's possible you could be conscious again someday if a human was born with that pattern again.

It would also make cloning humans a lot more confusing (what happens if you have two consciousnesses active at once? :psyduck:).
Click to expand...

There is something called the doctrine of eternal return, from the stoic philosophers, stating that if there is a finite amount of matter in the universe, there is a finite number of ways that matter can be arranged, thus everything is bound to be arranged in the same manner over and over again on a long enough timeline (or cycle).

Someone can correct me if I don't have that right, but basically it means that your entire life, every thought, feeling, etc will happen again, and has happened over and over again.

Apparently 5 trillion years from now all of the hydrogen in the universe will be burned up and all of the stars will go out, which sort of trumps the idea of life continuing to happen the way it does. Then again, that energy has to go somewhere, so who's to say it couldn't happen all over again.


damn it i'm stoned goodnight
 
Abstract said:
The model is presented only with visual image sequences, and it draws all of its responses with a physically modeled arm. Although simplified, the model captures many aspects of neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and psychological behavior, which we demonstrate via eight diverse tasks.
Click to expand...

Translation: Without a quantum computer, we have to collapse thousands of differential equations to bias our model to experimental results.

Currently our computer modeling is not able to fold a single protein effectively, or even the conformational space a single folded protein samples over 1 ms without greatly simplifying the force equations and biasing their output. We are much less able to model a single cell of ~30k genes producing 100k gene products in the form of RNA and protein all existing in the dynamic cellular environment that is a testament against entropy.

This kind of advancement lays groundwork and allows the smallest glimpse into the kind of modeling that is possible... if computers had about 10^24 more processing power than they do currently.
 
Gallium said:
Translation: Without a quantum computer, we have to collapse thousands of differential equations to bias our model to experimental results.

Currently our computer modeling is not able to fold a single protein effectively, or even the conformational space a single folded protein samples over 1 ms without greatly simplifying the force equations and biasing their output. We are much less able to model a single cell of ~30k genes producing 100k gene products in the form of RNA and protein all existing in the dynamic cellular environment that is a testament against entropy.

This kind of advancement lays groundwork and allows the smallest glimpse into the kind of modeling that is possible... if computers had about 10^24 more processing power than they do currently.
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm expecting to see computers hit a processing power ceiling or at the very least a huge plateau in our lifetimes. It's interesting nonetheless. I think the way we use technology will be the more interesting thing to watch unfold, rather than the development of new technology.

But then again, I don't know shit about science.
 
A lot of smart people are struggling to understand that there’s a mind/body connection. It gets even harder to comprehend a mind/everything connection, or to go even further and see that there’s realy no mind/everything disconnection in the first place.
 
The body is nothing more than a shell without the soul. When you educated morons get that simple fact thru your teachers thick skull then you will be much better off.
 
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