Is our Mindset Wrong?

[ticso]

according to the link they only simulated 1% of a real brain.
Still quite impressive.

[LamsonNguyen]

Maybe it's time for a Parallella supercomputer to tackle this task?

[mhonman]

The thing is, why bother to make a computer simulate the human brain when there is ready access to the real thing? It's not like there is a shortage of people, and they're self-replicating too...

IMO machines of all kinds are there to do the mind-numbingly dull repetitive stuff, leaving humanity free to watch game shows on TV (in case anyone's wondering, I'm not serious about the TV bit).

[ticso]

One thing is to understand how a brain works.
Another thing is that those biological self replicating brains come without knowledge and it takes years to train them for a job, while computer, when rebuild can take the knowledge with them.
Then there is the operational restriction. Human need water, food with many different ingredients, ..., while a computer just need electrical power.
Of course computers also need low radiation and climatic environment, but this is true for humans as well.
Nevertheless such developments scare a lot.

[Gravis]

[LamsonNguyen]

pretty sure he meant MRIs

[8l]

[mike8675309]

The correct mindset for parallel programing is already there but it is the application where such ideas are used that is changed by the Parallella and other such devices. Software as a service, Application Fabric, Messaging Bus, EC2, etc. show us technologies used to take a large workload and break it down to distinct stateless units of work which can be spread out to N-workers operating in parallel.

Working with the Parallella brings quite a few differences but mindset is not one of them. The mindset is the same, it is just the size of the unit of work that needs to be changed.

[Gravis]

[mike8675309]