Big Blue Madness: If Only IBM Had A Brain?

IBM and The Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne (EPFL) announced they are beginning work on an artificial brain designed on the cellular level. They call this project the "Big Blue Brain". They should come to Kentucky in October; we've got millions of people with big blue brains.

Where Does This Go? This big operation will be using four racks of Blue Gene and that adds up to about 23 teraflops. That's faster than Chuck Yeager flying the Millennium Falcon. The project will last about two years and real understanding is expected and will advance neuroscience. The problem I see is this: Where do we go from here? Many say this will allow us treat all the problems with the human brain. We will be able to treat many disorders like depression and maybe ADHD in children or even many physical ailments just by making some minor adjustments in the chemical flow and wiring of the brain. I would say though that will all this innovation, depending on how it's used, we'll lose our ability to innovate. I don't suggest that on some level correcting various problems won't help many people and many people live and die with them every day and sometimes these things are quite painful. But they define human existence. Little quirks with the brain are what makes human different. Imagine Emily Dickinson without depression. In retrospect famed photographer Ansel Adams had what some might call a learning disorder today. Einstein? Would legendary astrophysicist Stephen Hawking provide the same outlook to the world if he didn't have ALS? I'm not suggesting that people don't deserve relief but I am suggesting that sometimes people who overcome and adjust their "deficiencies" can turn them into serious advantages. Adversity in the human existence determines who we are and allows us our greatest triumphs. It's ok to understand how things work but one must look at the moral conundrums that arise with the development and understanding. Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park said it best, "We're so busy trying to figure out if we could, we didn't stop to think if we should." (paraphrase of course). At the very least, go back and reread Isaac Asimov a little more carefully. John Stith is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.