Mission to Build the World's First Simulated Brain is Underway (moved from ATSNN)

Today marks the first effort to create the world's first computer simulation of the entire human brain, right down to the molecular level. The 'Blue Brain' project is headed by IBM and a Swiss university team. The two teams believe that this newly created virtual brain will enable scientist to understand aspects of the human cognition.



The supercomputer in which the brain will be simulated has a processing power of 22.8 teraflops. Henry Markram has built the largest database of neural architecture of the neocortex for the mammalian brain in the world.

The end result of this project will take nearly ten years. When it is finished, researchers will be able to 'show' the 'Blue Brain' an object and record its neurological responses.

Here is an update on the news article:

IBM sells Blue Gene for brain research
IBM has sold a multimillion-dollar model of its new Blue Gene/L supercomputer to simulate the workings of the human brain.

The Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, or EPFL, in Lausanne, Switzerland, purchased the supercomputer and will collaborate with experts from IBM on the project, Big Blue said Monday.

The two-year effort, dubbed the Blue Brain project, will build a three-dimensional model that simulates the electrochemistry of a major portion of the brain, the neocortex, with plans to simulate other parts and eventually the entire brain. The researchers hope to understand processes such as perception, thought and memory and to illuminate how malfunctions in the brain's circuitry can lead to problems such as autism and schizophrenia.
news.com.com...

Scary (in the sense that soon, computers are going to be as smart as us ) and simply amazing....