The Ersatz Brain Project: A Brain-Like Computer Architecture for Cognition

Essentials Of The Ersatz Approach

The human brain is composed of on the order of 10¹⁰ neurons, connected together with at least 10¹⁴ connections between neurons. These numbers are likely to be underestimates. Biological neurons and their connections are extremely complex electrochemical structures that require substantial computer power to model even in poor approximations. The more realistic the neuron approximation, the smaller is the network that can be modeled. Worse, there is very strong evidence that a bigger brain is a better brain, thereby increasing greatly computational demands if biology is followed closely. We need good approximations to build a practical brain-like computer. Here we discuss one possible way to do it.