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DARPA funding research on probability processor : MIT develop the GP5

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posted on Aug, 16 2010 @ 11:52 PM
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The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency financed the basic research necessary to create a processor that thinks in terms of probabilities instead of the certainties of ones and zeros. And now Lyric Semiconductor, the spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where the work was done, is going to spend the next couple of years building a commercial probability processor called the GP5.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

Source: www.theregister.co.uk...

You can forget about the 1 and 0 in todays computers and welcome the future of computing. Those processors will be well suited to "think" about probability problems instead of focusing solely on absolute arithmetic. Will this bring true AI closer to reality? I think so.



posted on Aug, 17 2010 @ 12:26 AM
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I think you're right about this changing things for AI. This may just be the big break that's been needed in the field, let alone other fields that will be affected by this. The singularity keeps getting closer.

On a side note, does this mean that we'll be able to use infinite probability engines for FTL? Nah, animal rights groups would be too angry about the whales...



posted on Aug, 17 2010 @ 12:33 AM
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reply to post by The-White-One
 


Humm, improbability engine! I am not the only geek to have read the Hitcher's Guide! I would SO love to visit the last restaurant before the end of time but not get blasted into the sun in a black spaceship with a broken teleporter!

The fields that will be first affected will be financial models, spam filtering, crypto, and advertizing targeting.



posted on Aug, 17 2010 @ 12:40 AM
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Hmmm...I can't really imagine how they will go about this...no 1's or 0's? What does it use then? How do you give it command and how does it then deal with that information? Most things I do on my computer do need absolute arithmetic...I don't want to click the "Log Off" button and have my PC possibly not turn off...this sort of processor would be solely suited to things like A.I. wouldn't it?



posted on Aug, 17 2010 @ 12:44 AM
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reply to post by CHA0S
 


A new transistor can let pas more or less current. A handful of these transistors will be able to calculate probabilities more efficiently than 500 millions of them required today. The chips are to be released in 2013. A new programming language will be required to take advantage of it and this will not replace our CPU, but will be a specialized add-on like your graphics card. At first it will target datacenter but will eventually trickle down to your desktop computer.



posted on Aug, 17 2010 @ 01:15 AM
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I built an analog computer when I was 12. Used variable resistors, sort of an electric slide rule. Interesting that the concept is important enough to put on a chip. Of course in Texas they've always thought the electric slide was important.

Hard wired fuzzy logic? Is that what they're talking about?



posted on Aug, 17 2010 @ 01:26 AM
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reply to post by Phage
 


It is really oriented around probabilistic algorithms. Maybe fuzzy logic is taking part of it, I cannot tell. Here is what wikipedia has to say:


Fuzzy logic and probabilistic logic are mathematically similar – both have truth values ranging between 0 and 1 – but conceptually distinct, due to different interpretations—see interpretations of probability theory. Fuzzy logic corresponds to "degrees of truth", while probabilistic logic corresponds to "probability, likelihood"; as these differ, fuzzy logic and probabilistic logic yield different models of the same real-world situations.

Source: en.wikipedia.org...

[edit on 17-8-2010 by gagol]



posted on Aug, 17 2010 @ 01:34 AM
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this is not possible according to known computer science.



posted on Aug, 17 2010 @ 01:38 AM
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reply to post by Ausar
 


Yet MIT is building it, can you enlighten us how MIT is wrong?



posted on Aug, 17 2010 @ 01:45 AM
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reply to post by gagol
 

The reason I mentioned fuzzy logic is because it seems to me that it's sort of a kludge to get analog performance from a digital platform. I'm not really that well versed in it but this analog stuff from Lyric would be more like the real deal, the fuzzy logic is part of the platform. I'm intrigued by this technology. Sounds like they still have a lot of work to do on it though.


Now, if only I could remember how that thing I built worked...it wasn't really programmable...hard wired to do multiplication problems...



posted on Aug, 17 2010 @ 02:09 AM
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Originally posted by gagol
You can forget about the 1 and 0 in todays computers and welcome the future of computing. Those processors will be well suited to "think" about probability problems instead of focusing solely on absolute arithmetic. Will this bring true AI closer to reality? I think so.


Let's just hope the AI doesn't decide that the humans are the source of the problem. And if it does, how will you react to it?

Perhaps people don't realize this, but when you're talking about a true AI, you're talking about an artificial sentient being. Another sentient being, in this planet, besides the humans.



posted on Aug, 17 2010 @ 02:16 AM
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reply to post by Jazzyguy
 


Funny thing, I happened to listened to this movie today!

Colossus, the Forbin Project

A good old 70's movie about computer domination.



posted on Aug, 17 2010 @ 05:41 AM
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Who cares about this, i want my infinite improbability drive, not a probability drive.



posted on Aug, 17 2010 @ 06:21 AM
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this proves that your system of information sciences and knowledge thereof is not intellectual property of a technology tree of your own makings.



posted on Aug, 18 2010 @ 09:04 AM
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I loved this headline and was going to post this story, but here it is!


DARPA funds Mr Spock on a Chip

Why do we care about a processor that calculates probabilities instead manipulating of data to get a certainty? Because an increasing number of applications in far-ranging fields are about trying to figure out the probability of something happening and acting on those probabilities.


Far-ranging fields. DARPA. One can only imagine. Less energy, more speed, Easy to make. Easy programming language. And Spock-like logic.

Anyway, cool article.





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