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Supercomputers vs Human Brain

1 points by vikram_tiwari 12y ago

The world's fastest supercomputer (TH-2) requires 24 million Watts of power, but still needs to be about 100,000 times faster to match our 20 Watt brain. I compare this to Vacuum Tubes vs Semiconductors specs. Aren't we somehow reaching limits of semiconductors as well and should look for better alternatives instead? #AskHN

memming 12y ago
What's the evidence that "still needs to be about 100,000 times faster to match our 20 Watt brain"?
- vikram_tiwari 12y ago
  Relevant(?): http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/for-one-second-a-supercomputer-mimicked-the-human-brain http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/for-one-second-a-supercompu...
  - memming 12y ago
    They do this kind of publicity stunt all the time. Simulating a model of biological neural network doesn't mean much. We don't know how the brain works yet.
b6 12y ago
I don't know why people find it so tempting to compare brains and computers. Maybe because it seems like computers are figuring things out? But they aren't, they're just scooting numbers around and adding and whatnot. They're Cadillac calculators. Anyone can understand what a computer does, but we might never understand what a brain does. I try to be scientifically-minded and am not prone to mysticism, but consciousness is basically magic. I think it's likely we'll make an artificial brain that works about like ours do, without having any idea why consciousness shows up out of nowhere to make use of it. You say it takes a supercomputer to match a brain, but a $1 processor will easily beat a human if the task is to add a bunch of numbers, or even just to carefully do something over and over. I do think there's some fascinating organic/analog vs digital thing going on. Humans took a weird evolutionary branch, got weirdly smart, and lit the technology bomb. Now it looks like our bioslime will give rise to intelligent machines that won't have our frailties or evolutionary baggage, for whom a thousand years is no big deal, who can actually reach the stars if they want to. Ever more complicated kinds of life, using the previous kind of life as a stepping stone.

1 points by vikram_tiwari 12y ago

memming 12y ago

What's the evidence that "still needs to be about 100,000 times faster to match our 20 Watt brain"?

vikram_tiwari 12y ago
Relevant(?): http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/for-one-second-a-supercomputer-mimicked-the-human-brain http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/for-one-second-a-supercompu...
- memming 12y ago
  They do this kind of publicity stunt all the time. Simulating a model of biological neural network doesn't mean much. We don't know how the brain works yet.

b6 12y ago

I don't know why people find it so tempting to compare brains and computers. Maybe because it seems like computers are figuring things out? But they aren't, they're just scooting numbers around and adding and whatnot. They're Cadillac calculators. Anyone can understand what a computer does, but we might never understand what a brain does. I try to be scientifically-minded and am not prone to mysticism, but consciousness is basically magic. I think it's likely we'll make an artificial brain that works about like ours do, without having any idea why consciousness shows up out of nowhere to make use of it. You say it takes a supercomputer to match a brain, but a $1 processor will easily beat a human if the task is to add a bunch of numbers, or even just to carefully do something over and over. I do think there's some fascinating organic/analog vs digital thing going on. Humans took a weird evolutionary branch, got weirdly smart, and lit the technology bomb. Now it looks like our bioslime will give rise to intelligent machines that won't have our frailties or evolutionary baggage, for whom a thousand years is no big deal, who can actually reach the stars if they want to. Ever more complicated kinds of life, using the previous kind of life as a stepping stone.