The Ability to Upload a Human Mind to a Computer in 2015
This essay sets out to quantify the ability to upload a Human mind to a computer in 2015.
It compares the Human Electromagnetic, Electrochemical, Organic Brain to the current Technological Memory data storage and processing ability to establish the potential of achieving a Human Brain upload.
This is particularly pertinent in our age following the establishment of the Human Brain Project in 2013 with the strategic aim of developing information and communication technologies in Neuroinformatics, Brain simulation, High-performance computing, Medical informatics, Neuromorphic computing and Neurorobotics. The Project will also consider Cognitive Architectures, Mathematical and Theoretical Foundations of Brain Research, Brain Simulation, High Performance Computing, Medical Informatics, Applications, Ethics and Society and Management.
Source: HBP Strategic Objectives
Source: HBP Sub Projects
Terms:
‘Flop’ is a measure of a computers speed of processing data
‘Petaflop’ is a quadrillion; a thousand trillion; floating point operations per second
Source: whatis.techtarget.com/definition/petaflop
Human Brain
Number of Neurons in the Human Brain
= 100,000,000,000
Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026761.400-the-outer-limits-of-the-human-brain.html
Number of Synaptic connections per Neuron
= 5,000
Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026761.400-the-outer-limits-of-the-human-brain.html
Total Possible Number of Neural Processes
= 100,000,000,000 x 5000
= 500,000,000,000,000 processes simultaneously per second.
Processing Speed of a Human Brain
= 1 neuron can fire once every 5 milliseconds.
= 200 times a second
= 100,000,000,000 x 200 x 5000
= 100,000,000,000,000,000 calculations per second
= 100,000,000,000,000,000 flops
Source: https://www.ualberta.ca/~chrisw/howfast.html
Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026761.400-the-outer-limits-of-the-human-brain.html
Area
= 0.12 msq
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_brain
Power Requirement
= 20 w
Source: http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/JacquelineLing.shtml
Heat Output
= 100 watts total human body output
Source: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/135481-will-your-body-be-the-battery-of-the-future
Technological Memory Data Storage and Processing
The World’s fastest supercomputer is the Tianhe-2 (Milky Way 2) at the National Super Computer Center in Guangzhou, China. Its details are.
= 3,120,000 cores (comparable to neurons)
= 33.86 petaFLOPs
= 33,860,000,000,000,000 flops
Source: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2014/11/18/chinas-milkyway-2-ranked-fastest-supercomputer-for-fourth-time-in-a-row/
Source: http://endmemo.com/convert/computer%20speed_s.php
Area
= 720 msq
Source: http://www.netlib.org/utk/people/JackDongarra/PAPERS/tianhe-2-dongarra-report.pdf
Power Requirement
= 24 MW
Source: http://www.netlib.org/utk/people/JackDongarra/PAPERS/tianhe-2-dongarra-report.pdf
Heat Output
= 80 KW
Source: http://www.netlib.org/utk/people/JackDongarra/PAPERS/tianhe-2-dongarra-report.pdf
Conclusions
The ratios of the current most powerful Technological Memory Data Storage and Processing to that of the Human Brain are
In terms of Cores to Neurons
= 32,051 cores to 1 human Neuron.
In terms of processing speed
1 to 3 floating point calculations per second (FLOPS) in a human brain.
In terms of Area in sqm
= 6000 to 1 human brain
In terms of Power Requirement in watts
= 1,000,000 to 1 human brain
In terms of Heat Output in watts
= 800 to 1 human brain
The current super computers do not match human brain ability, processing speed, area, power requirement or heat output efficiency.
Therefore the current super computers could not upload a human brain capability.
If technology progressed at the currently identified level and also in accordance with Moores Law; that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits doubles every year; then the uploading of a human mind could occur by 2050 but only at a very high energy, resource and environment cost.
Ian K Whittaker
Websites:
https://sites.google.com/site/architecturearticles
Email: iankwhittaker@gmail.com
07/03/2015
14/10/2020
518 words over 3 pages