Human brain versus IT machine

Artificial neuron’ is the man-made object that comes
nearest to competing with the human brain. It is the basic computing unit in the
Artificial Neural Network –ANN. The Biological Neural Network–BNN created by
the almighty–while losing out in speed–beats the best Artificial
Intelligence (AI) system in a few facets. ANN is a set of processing units
assembled in a closely interconnected structure that exhibits similarity of some
features of BNN. Soon computer will be called as an Information Technology or IT
machine.

The Cyborg

Professor Kevin ‘Cyborg’ Warwick, University of Reading, UK, makes
`intelligent learning robot’–which learn by trial and error and ‘not by
fully programmed computing’. He works in Mobile Autonomous Devices–MAD-laboratory
and estimates its cost as $ 10 million. A human brain is, perhaps, cheaper.
Kevin believes in embedded systems–literally. He gets sensors embedded into
his body to let tissues grow around it. His body communicates with computer.
Lately he coaxed his wife to get embedded too–perhaps they communicated
through sensors and not by the elements as vision, touch, aural, olfactory and
taste.

The brain 

The number of neurons in the human cortex is estimated to be 10 raised to
the power 11, equivalent to the arithmetic digit ‘one’ followed by eleven
zeroes. The cell body of a typical neuron measures from 10 to 80 micron or micro
meter. The total number of interconnections between the neurons is estimated to
be ten thousand times the number of neurons. The ‘interconnect’ is called
‘Axon’. When axon extends to other nerve cells, it is ‘inter neurons’;
when axon reaches muscle fiber, it is ‘motor neuron’. A third type of neuron
receives information from muscles or from sensory organs. It is ‘receptor
neuron’.

This infrastructure facilitates the complex ‘pattern
recognition task’ that a brain is capable of. Complexity of the brain is
further compounded–computing in brain takes place at three locations:

• In the cell body called ‘soma’ of each neuron

• Outside the cell body in the ‘dendrites’ which is a
  tree-like nerve of fibre

• Outside soma in the ‘synapses’ which are junctions of
  axons

Pattern and data

Brain has an ability to deal with a variety of ‘data situations’. The
network can deal with information that is fuzzy, noisy, probabilistic and
inconsistent too. This is because human brain perceives everything as a ‘pattern’.
For IT machine everything is ‘data’. If there is no pattern, it is very
difficult for a human brain to remember and to reproduce data later. Brain tends
to see a pattern even in routine data consisting of arithmetic integers such as
telephone, bank account and car numbers. Storage and recall operations are
different in a human compared to a computer.

The brain is robust too. Because of the vast BNN, the
information is distributed in the connections throughout the network. Robustness
and fault tolerance are because of pattern nature in storage and recall. The
brain is far superior to IT machine in pattern recognition. Brain is fault
tolerant. Any slight decay of some nerve cells does not affect the performance
significantly. Ability to compromise helps to optimize. The sense of vision can
be taken as one example.

Value addition

‘Thalasima’ is an interface between the retinal nerve endings inside the
human eyeball and the vision related neurons in the brain. Light rays pass
through the aperture called pupil of the eye to reach the retina. In reality, it
is only a hazy representation–of data, text, image–that is formed. It gets
interpreted into a clear pattern. Thalasima does ‘value addition’ to the
data collected by the retina. Perhaps it is true that beauty lies in the eyes of
the beholder–value addition is indeed different, say, in each of the nine
judges in a beauty pageant. In the future, one may propose an optimal limit
through eye test for the judges before they sit on the panel!

Learning by experience and example is a derivative of logical
thinking. From childhood, human brain is adept at this. Thematic Apperception
Test and psychological test of logic, rely on this faculty. Sensory perception
by vision, sound and hearing, smell or olfactory sense, touch and taste
understand input data in the form of number, text, shape, picture and audio.
Some brains exhibit extra sensory perception too. A prodigy has perhaps
compressed logical steps–to access data and solve abnormally fast.

Kevin says, "Humans do not sense the world in other
ways."

Any interference in the sensory perception is ‘noise’.
Even in a noisy environment with deformed or partial data, the brain can derive
an overall and complete pattern to make sense. But AI needs algorithmic
instructions. IT machine can be made to sense not only the ‘five’ but, more.
For instance, the machines can be made to sense ultra violet rays, infra red
signal and ultrasonic too, adds Kevin. If wanted patterns are mixed with others–which
is noise–the brain is discerning, it recalls the required ones. Kevin also
says that brain can get added ‘intelligence’ with embedded implants!

Brain makes up

Brain exhibits flexibility. The network automatically adjusts to a new
environment without using preprogrammed instructions. It can function in a
non-programmed environment. The best computer always needs programs and
instructions. The brain ‘understands’ patterns whereas, computer ‘recognizes’
data. Brain can get the whole object in the available data even if, there is no
clear indication of sub-pattern in the data. As one example, a name written in
handwritten cursive script may not be clear; some alphabets may be hazy. Yet the
brain understands or makes out the name. Similarly, speech is understood even
when it is slurred.

Intuition is God’s gift to human. BNN uses electro-chemical
signals and the five sensors generally convert them into mechanical–loco motor–activity.
IT machine use electrical signals; deprived of it they cannot exist in
semi-alive

form.

IT machine need a memory to store information. Addressing
system is necessary to locate and retrieve any information. A new information
stored in the same location destroys the old one. BNN stores information in the
‘strengths of interconnect’; new information is ‘added’ by adjusting the
strengths. Old information remains. Information in the brain is adaptable and in
IT machines it is strictly replaceable. But IT machines can be built with
enormous amount of memory.

Even if a few connections are snapped or if a few neurons are
not functioning, in BNN the information is still preserved due to the
distributed nature of the encoded information. In contrast, computers are
inherently not fault tolerant; corrupted information in the memory cannot be
retrieved. Each neuron in BNN acts on the basis of the information locally
available. Output is transmitted to the connected neuron in the neighborhood.
Whereas control unit rules the roost in a computer, there is no systematic
control to process information in the brain.

Computer is faster

In computers, the cycle time to execute one step of a program in the CPU is
in the range of a few nanoseconds. The cycle time of a bio neural event prompted
by an external stimulus takes milli-seconds. IT machines are a million times
faster. A large number of instructions are involved in most of the computer
programs and they operate in a sequential mode. But the brain operates with
massively parallel operations, each of them having comparatively fewer steps.
Human information processing is superior for certain tasks, despite of being
several orders of magnitude slower as compared to IT machine.

Variety of communication by machine is evident. In the brain
there is no ‘full duplex’ system in communication–one medium cannot carry
transmission and reception signals simultaneously. Some junctions are ‘half
duplex’–either transmission or reception takes place, one at a time. The
rest are one way medium–either it facilitates only transmission or only
reception. Axon is the transmission medium and the dendrite receives signals
when interacting with neighboring neurons.

Human brain is habituated to see the ‘space’ only in
three dimensions–four if ‘time’ is added. Space is multi-dimensional.
"Thought in human has not graduated to feel multi-dimensionality of the
universe", says Kevin. "The brain is upgradable with extra memory and
even X-ray vision", he adds.

Biological virus strikes due to hacking, which is a disease.
The worst kind of hacking on the BNN happens when the brain causes at least two
distinct and contradictory behavioral patterns towards the same fellow being–schizophrenia.
It will be akin to a helpful robot turning destructive all of a sudden in the
same environment–by learnt behavior or otherwise!

Sqn Ldr BG Prakash