How fast is the human brain in terms of computer speed?

[sims]

Here's an interesting article I just read.

FLOPS, MIPS, Watts and the Human Brain » Doctor Recommended

AMD Athlon @ 600 mhz - 2.4 gigaflops (single precision), 1 gigaflop (double precision)
Pentium 4 @ 2 ghz - 8 gigaflops (single precision)
Pentium 4 @ 3 ghz - 12 gigaflops
Athlon 64 X2 4600 - 14.7 gigaflops, 17400 MIPS
G5 Dual 2.3GHz - 30 gigaflops
XBox 360 Xenon chip -115 gigaflops
XBOX 360 Xenos graphics chip - 240 gigaflops
nVIDIA 7800 GTX 512 - 200 gigaflops
ATi X1900 - 553.8 gigaflops
Human brain estimates - 100 petaflops

I can't believe how powerful the human brain is. No wonder there aren't any anime style android or humanoid robots yet. Even with the fastest supercomputer today, there isn't any anything fast enough to process imagery recognition that our eye cans do on the fly, let alone simulate the entire human sensory groups.

The more I read about this, the more I have to wonder if we really came to exist through series of changes. I mean if you look at it from an engineer point of view, evolution seems pretty simplistic and doesn't account for any other branch of science aside from biology. I think intelligent design explains our existence better than evolution.

Anyway I came across this article while trying to find out how many flops a ps2 can handle.

PS: some interesting facts.

* In the Star Trek fictional universe, circa 2364, the android Data was constructed with an initial linear computational speed rated at 60 trillion operations per second, or 60 TIPS (and thereby, potentially 'dating' the series Star Trek: The Next Generation in which he appears); however, he was later able to infinitely exceed this limit by modifying his hardware and software.

* In the movie Terminator III, Skynet is said to be operating at "60 teraflops per second," a nonsensical misuse of the term.

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Last edited by sims; June 10th, 2007 at 07:32..

[D.D.]

the brain is massively parallel but i believe in terms of speed, the mechanisms individually are slow.

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The PS3 Cell Processor Explained Page, IBM Research's Introduction to Cell Multiprocessor and Cell Processor Programming Guide

[Cheesus]

Go figure...
But i honestly doubt people can get such readings like that... how the hell are you gonna measure it?!!

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[mogster]

Two completely different technologies.
Heck, teh brain isn't even technology.

[refraction]

the brain is technology, just biological :P

ive always been told the brain is infinately faster than any computer, altho we cant perform certain calculations so fast, we process millions of images and sound samples per second, not to mention maintain an entire body of systems, then we have thought processing on top of that, the brain is extremely powerful.

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[firyace]

fanboyism.........

nVIDIA 7800 GTX 512 - 200 gigaflops
ATi X1900 - 553.8 gigaflops

Ati is better


Why didn't they test nvidia 8800?

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[refraction]

Originally Posted by firyace

fanboyism.........



Ati is better


Why didn't they test nvidia 8800?

umm, that test isnt exactly fair lol, the x1900 is closer to the 7900, not the 7800.

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[firyace]

I know, and its just funny how they are comparing various cpu chips, then with the x360 stuff, then with video cards...

Its just a weird reference to the flops thing, seems that they are just throwing a bunch of numbers in there

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[refraction]

well they are giving estimated processing speeds to each of the chips, provides a good comparison of modern technology compared to the human brain

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[cloudsBro]

Ok lets just say your brain is so powerful it is able to handle 10,000 programs, although the power of our brain is not measurable. In basic terms, its really complex and fast at working. Although this varies from the bright to the not so bright

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[MT]

W00T that means PCSX2 will run full speedz0r in my brain!

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[Player-X]

I guess when they say "the best in game graphics is your imagination" it's quite true.

[Proto]

The more I read about this, the more I have to wonder if we really came to exist through series of changes. I mean if you look at it from an engineer point of view, evolution seems pretty simplistic and doesn't account for any other branch of science aside from biology. I think intelligent design explains our existence better than evolution.

Assumption: The universe is too complicated for it to have simple and explainable roots.
Deduction: Therefore an omnipotent, all powerful being with macro cosmical and infinite powers exists and created everything.

Yeah right, perfectly logical,no? Keep the intelligent design talk on the open discussion forum. (Well yeah, I'm the only one actually paying attention to this but still )

As an AI researcher myself I have been studying computational theory of the mind for years now, and I understand best the terrible complexity the human brain posseses However, I am also of the belief that there will be a day when our intellectual and technological sons will be able to surpass us. True, the processing capabilities of the brain are ridiciously enormous, however we are slowly getting there.

Artificial Life, Evolutionary Computation, Multi Agent systems, all of them are system with very basic and simple principles, that nonetheless show the power of the synergy of a myriad of little systems and processes working together. If we could compare the power of a neuron to a small cluster of neurons and synapses, and the whole brain as a global grid of programs and computers working together for specialized tasks the comparison doesn't seem that far-fetched anymore. For anyone who has seen the complexity that an Artificial Life based environment can reach when you divide the processing needs of each agent cluster in a different processor it should be easy to see.

On another hand it seems a little unfair to me that they are using generic purpose devices in a comparison test against such a high specialized organ as the brain.