I don't see how this is different from having a huge mainframe to simulate an ANN with billions of neurons. First of all, they are using integrate and fire (or Izhikevich) models that are very simplistic and have already been studied since the 60s. Neurons are not like that at all and one needs a higher level of detail to successfully reproduce their output. The idea here is that if you cram too many IF neurons in a way that resembles the connections in the human brain you will have some thinking machine. I don't think so.
I think Markram's response to the "cat brain" project is still valid to a large degree. He has proposed the "Human Brain Project" instead, that will attempt to simulate a brain bio-realistically, the analogous of an "LHC for neuroscience" which imho, is more important:
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I don't see how this is different from having a huge mainframe to simulate an ANN with billions of neurons. First of all, they are using integrate and fire (or Izhikevich) models that are very simplistic and have already been studied since the 60s. Neurons are not like that at all and one needs a higher level of detail to successfully reproduce their output. The idea here is that if you cram too many IF neurons in a way that resembles the connections in the human brain you will have some thinking machine. I don't think so.
I think Markram's response to the "cat brain" project is still valid to a large degree. He has proposed the "Human Brain Project" instead, that will attempt to simulate a brain bio-realistically, the analogous of an "LHC for neuroscience" which imho, is more important:
http://jahia-prod.epfl.ch/site/bluebrain/op/edit/page-52741....