Technology
| Into The Mind Of The Microchip |
| By : Flynn Remedios | Previous | Next |
| Posted on : 18 Jun, 2007 | Total Views : 153 |
Highly complex self-enabled microchips blessed with gigantic processing power and inbuilt holographic memories could have a mind of their own. `You think, so you are', `It's all in the mind', `Think and be' - statements such as these are not just restricted to positive thinking workshops and in books on Mind Control. Scientists and researchers in different parts of the world are trying to put these principles to practical use in making microprocessors that can think, react and even dream the way humans do. And according to one school of thought, it shouldn't be very difficult to make this theory work.
As such, computer units have been enabled with a lot of human capabilities. What still remains for these super-smart machines is the ability to think on their own.
Neurologists postulate that the human mind is capable of consciousness because of its capability of zillions of memory combinations with complete control to manipulate and change these to form zillions of other permutations and combinations. Besides, human memory is multi-dimensional and is stored in many formats - pictorial and spatial, besides digital-like. The human brain also has hyperlinks to each and every memory format. So my brain not only stores the name of my kindergarten teacher, it also stores a visual image of her, besides a sample tone of her voice. At times, in your mind's ear, if you concentrate enough, you can hear your school teacher scold you or sing out a nursery rhyme.
This feature is currently lacking in computer memory, not because it is not possible to process the data, but simply because current memory storage options are simply not enough to store pictorial and spatial forms of memory with links to each of them. Also, the processing power required in terms of instructions per second to link such multidimensional memories and then display them is still beyond what has been invented so far. Holographic memories may be a solution in the near future as far as storage is concerned, but the number-crunching problem will have to be solved. A solution could be in the form of a master chip that was not hard-coded, but could modify its circuit paths like the human brain does.
The main combination being tried out is: if a computer or a processor were made self-enabled or self-starting, with human-like memory capabilities and with processing capability mentioned above, with sensory inputs in the form of sight, sound, smell and other capabilities to seek data from the surroundings in the form of tactile or radio communications, would it be able to react to external stimuli on its own, without being pre-programmed. There are many computer engineers who believe that this is possible.
Besides endowing a machine with artificial intelligence, it could be given total control of itself. Which means it could shut itself off - like humans take a nap or a break - when it is overburdened, and switch itself on again when it is time to do so. It would also replenish its power supply and augment its other resources before they run out, it would have an inbuilt master control facility with its own memory cache that could be almost limitless. It could seek out and communicate with other chips in the vicinity or anywhere in the world, traversing cellular or radio networks and suck out data that it could then process and react to. And of course, like humans go through a `programming stage' in their childhood, the machine would be pre-programmed with some basic data with the ability to `learn from new experiences'.
Such a machine wouldn't require any human intervention to keep it going, besides maybe power. Coupled with the memory and processing capabilities mentioned above, its systems would be able to form layers of memory, similar to the conscious and subconscious in humans. And then probably that machine would have a mind of its own.
All this may sound like a chapter from a weird sci-fi novel, but in truth it is not. For all this is already being used in bits and pieces in different gadgets that we use in daily life. Unfortunately, there may not be a lot of commercial mileage in creating a machine that could think like a human with human-like consciousness. But were all these technologies put to use, a `conscious machine with a mind of its own' is very much a reality
(This article by the author was first published in The Economic Times, Mumbai)
Written By : Flynn Remedios
