Last year, IBM announced that it had built a computer that exceeds the neural capacity of the cortex of a cat.
My first thought on hearing this news was that the world does not need a computer that is snotty, stubborn, and coughs up hairballs on the couch. (I already have a computer like that, including the hairballs—one of these days, I just gotta clean the fan.) But fortunately, that was not IBM’s goal.
That same press release went on to say that IBM eventually wants to build a computer that simulates and emulates the abilities of a human brain for sensation, perception, action, interaction and cognition.
And once they accomplish that, why stop there? If you can build a machine that matches the cortical ability of a human, why not keep going and build a machine that exceeds that by ten times, or a hundred, or as far as you can go before the limitations of the physical universe kick in?
Continue reading after the jump.
