5/03/2007

Mouse vs. Supercomputer

Which one is smarter? A mouse or a supercomputer? I know, the answer dependents on how to define and measure the smartness, but here is an interesting find - researchers at IBM and the University of Nevada have been using IBM's BlueGene L supercomputer (4,096 processors, each using 256MB of RAM) trying to simulate a mouse brain, or more precisely, a mouse-thought. Even with this huge processing power, researcher only managed to run the supercomputer at a speed 10 times slower than real time, and only for 10 seconds - the equivalent of only 1 second of mouse-thought. It turned out that from neurology point of view (# of neurons, # of synapses per neuron, and how fast neuron communicates), mice are in fact a very intelligent life form.

6 comments:

Cherry said...

Should mice have a lifespan of 80 years perhaps they will rule the earth!

Peter Haslam said...

Now I won't count on my computer to keep my smart. Know any mouse professors :)

Anonymous said...

So were about 24 years away from a desktop computer as smart as a mouse and 21 years after that to be as smart as a human (this assuming a double in processing power every 1.5 years, and that there is a direct linear scale based on the above).

Anonymous said...

So, I guess we shouldn't expect technology to get to the point that they can think like humans, since they are not able to get "mousy" brains yet.

That seems to be such a comforting thought.

Who needs a Name? said...

This blog is fun! I'll be back for more! C-ya at Mybloglog too!

Anonymous said...

Wow, I must teach that mouse to do my math