Computers might not be able to mimic human intelligence, but what about a memcomputer?
Hey guys!
Amy with you on DNews today talking super intelligent computers!
Well, maybe…
In 1950, computer scientist Alan Turing proposed the now-famous Turing Test that challenges
anyone to build a computer that can think like a human, success coming when a human
conversing with that computer thinks he or she is really talking to another person.
So far, no computer has been able to pass the Turing Test, but a new kind of computer
might be getting closer.
Universal memcomputing machines or Memcomputers, developed by Massimiliano Di Ventra, a theoretical
physicist at the University of California, San Diego.
They are a class of brain-inspired computers based on human memory systems, essentially
mimicking the human brain.
It comes down to the microchip.
In a conventional microchip, the processor executes computations and the memory stores
data.
Both are separate components necessitating a constant relay between processor and memory,
something that consumes enough time and energy to limit the performance of standard computers.
Memcomputers avoid this pitfall.
Physicists building these new machines are using memprocessors at the computer’s core,
smaller units that can both process and store data, removing this relay between the two
halves of a conventional microchip.
It’s a setup that mimics the way neurons work in the brain.
In the brain, each neuron processes and stores information.
So in a computer, these memprocessors save energy, time, and ultimately improve the computer’s
performance.
Memprocessors can work together collectively and simultaneously to attack a complex problem
from all sides, finding all possible solutions at once to settle on the best one rather than
trying each one in turn, which is what a human would do.
And here’s a really interesting aspect of this story: working out the details of memcomputing
could help scientists better understand how the brain works.
For now memcomputers are in the proof-of-concept stage, and the way the system encodes data
makes it vulnerable to fluctuations that can introduce errors, so this will have to be
addressed before a large-scale version can go to work.
Still, this might be the computer that could one day perform notoriously complex tasks
like breaking codes.
But there are other breakthrough technologies that are changing the world and making amazing
experiences possible.
Intel drives innovation with products like processors, wearables and IOT devices, and
within data centers.
In the PC and beyond.
Having Intel inside makes for better experiences outside.
So what do you guys think of the prospect of a computer that mimics the human brain?
Cool?
Or super creepy?
Let us know in the comments below and don’t forget to subscribe for more DNews every day
of the week.