quote:

Ian Pearson, head of British Telecom's futurology unit, told the UK's Observer newspaper that the rapid advances in computing power would make cyber-immortality a reality within 50 years.

Pearson said the launch last week of Sony's PlayStation 3, a machine 35 times more powerful than the model it replaced, was a sign of things to come.

"The new PlayStation is one percent as powerful as the human brain," Pearson told the Observer. "It is into supercomputer status compared to 10 years ago. PlayStation 5 will probably be as powerful as the human brain."

Pearson said that brain-downloading technology would initially be the preserve of the rich, but would become more available over subsequent decades.

"If you're rich enough then by 2050 it's feasible. If you're poor you'll probably have to wait until 2075 or 2080 when it's routine," he said.

"We are very serious about it. That's how fast this technology is moving: 45 years is a hell of a long time in IT."

Pearson also predicted that it would be possible to build a fully conscious computer with superhuman levels of intelligence as early as 2020.

IBM's BlueGene computer can already perform 70.72 trillion calculations a second and Pearson said the next computing goal was to replicate consciousness.

"We're already looking at how you might structure a computer that could become conscious. Consciousness is just another sense, effectively, and that's what we're trying to design in computer."

Pearson said that computer consciousness would make feasible a whole new sphere of emotional machines, such as airplanes that are afraid of crashing.

By 2020 Pearson also predicted the creation of a "virtual world" of immersive computer-generated environments in which we will spend increasing amounts of time, socializing and doing business.

He said: "When technology gives you a life-size 3D image and the links to your nervous system allow you to shake hands, it's like being in the other person's office. It's impossible to believe that won't be the normal way of communicating."

But Pearson admitted that the consequences of advancing technologies needed to be considered carefully.

"You need a complete global debate," he said. "Whether we should be building machines as smart as people is a really big one."

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Originally posted by AngryManatee
No, this is not about downloading stuff into your brain, this is about downloading your brain into a computer. Virtually life eternal.

quote:

Pearson said the launch last week of Sony's PlayStation 3, a machine 35 times more powerful than the model it replaced, was a sign of things to come.

"The new PlayStation is one percent as powerful as the human brain," Pearson told the Observer. "It is into supercomputer status compared to 10 years ago. PlayStation 5 will probably be as powerful as the human brain."

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Originally posted by inimalist
lol

i love the comparison between brain computational power and computer computational power. Like, you know, the two are even remotely the same thing...

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Originally posted by dadudemon
I thought you student of the mind? How could you not know that the brain is just a giant harddrive/processor? The brain works on the same principles as a computer including electricity...it is quite a fundamental fact.

Do you know that people are connecting things to their brain and through brain activity via electricity, they are manipulating devices?

Also, Cybernetics is not Science fiction.

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Originally posted by inimalist
OMFG

thats amazing!!!!

computer analogies have been made to the brain?????

ZOMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!

umm, ok, so, you would be able to tell me what the front side bus of a CPU to ram would be in the brain?

You are going to explain how the optical HD is the same as memory?

I know what you are saying, and it is the fact that i AM a student of the mind that I can say the idea is bogus.

For instance, computers are capable of doing mathematics far beyond that of human ability. So that means they are better and smarter than people right? oh, well, they can't object recognize as well as we can, so we are better....

do you see the problem? Underlying abstract models of "memory" and "processing" are systems in the brain and in computers that are radically differant.

OR: Tell me where the CPU and Graphics Processors are in the brain, I could use some international noteriety as the man who solved the binding and localization problems of the brain.

Oh, and maybe a little bit on how emergent properties, such as consciousness, are comparable to a computer.

and no, the brain doesn't run on electricity. Electricity is a flow of electrons. The brain propogates electric signals by polorizing or depolorizing a signal down an axon using ion channels. So, there is an electrical charge, and it is absolutly unrelated to electricity (I guess electrons might be what they have in common...). So, how do we "integrate" brain and technology. Well, we have a voltage reader in the chip or whatever that transduces the electo-chemical signal into that of electricity. I'd also be a little careful in what you say about cybernetics. You may want to specify that all of the integration of neuron to technology has been done in absolutly controlled lab settings. Its amazing, but there is no reason to believe this will be close to being ready this century, this being more of problem of the way information is stored/processed in the brain as opposed to simple technological limitations.

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Originally posted by BackFire
Woooo more porn.