'Emotional' computers possible: scientist

Renowned neuroscientist Dr Henry Markram who heads the Blue Brain project in Switzerland says that such a supercomputer could be operational in another ten years.

Markram who is director and professor at Swiss Federal Institute’s (EPFL) Brain Mind Institute was here on an invitation from Technopark-based PIT Solutions, a software solutions and services company which is providing comprehensive IT support to the project.

The Blue Brain Project is the first comprehensive attempt to reverse-engineer the mammalian brain to understand brain function and dysfunction through detailed simulations. According to Markram,

“The mysteries of the mind can be solved…soon. Mental illness, memory and perception, which are triggered by neurons and electric signals, will soon be treated with a supercomputer that models all the brain’s 100 trillion synapses.”

The project involves an attempt to build a computerised copy of a brain, starting with a rat’s brain, and then progressing to a human brain, inside one of the world’s most powerful computers. This, it is hoped, will bring into being a mind that will be able to think, reason, express will, lay down memories and perhaps even experience love, anger, sadness, pain and joy.

Markram has already simulated parts of the neocortex, the most ‘modern’ region of the brain, which evolved rapidly in mammals to cope with the demands of parenthood and social situations. Markram’s team created a 3D simulation of around 10,000 brain cells to mimic the behaviour of the rat neocortex. From the basic framework, the project started studying how data is gathered and stored in brains of higher species. Once all the circuitry of the computerised brain is put in place, it would be driven by an IBM bioprocessor. Expected to cost US $3 billion, the project  could be operational by 2020.

Rafeek K Mohammed, CEO PIT Solutions said that the new partnership would enable PIT Solutions to enter an exciting and niche area in software development business.