IBM to Map Human Brain with Big Blue Project

by Raj Patel
June 06, 2005

IBM will try and pick up where Artificial Intelligence (AI) has failed over the last few decades when it teams with France's Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in a two-year project to emulate the workings of the human brain.

Dubbed "Big Blue," the project will involve creating a detailed model of the neocortex using the "Blue Gene" supercomputer.

"With certain simulations we anticipate that a full day's worth of wet lab research could be done in a matter of seconds on Blue Gene," said Henry Markram, the EPFL professor heading up the project.

The neocortex houses 85 percent of the brain's function, and will be the first step in mapping out the entire brain, with scientists hoping to understand how and why certain microcircuits in the brain malfunction, causing psychiatric disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and depression.

"Blue Gene is by far the fastest supercomputing system in the world, giving scientists access to unprecedented levels of computing power," said Tilak Agerwala, Vice President of Systems, IBM Research. "What really matters is not the power itself, but how it is applied to accelerate innovation and discovery in science, engineering and business."

The system will be installed at EPFL and will occupy the floor space of about four refrigerators.



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This is pretty nifty stuff. In the AI threads we've had in here I've discussed Ray Kurzwiel and this is something that follows his timeline to AI.