The Future of Neuromorphic Computing
I never understand the odd advantage that brains are assumed to have over machines when comparing power consumption.<p>&gt;... AlphaGo ... was able to beat a world-champion human player of Go, but only after it had trained ... running on approximately a million watts. (Its opponent’s brain, by contrast, would have been about fifty thousand times more energy-thrifty, consuming twenty watts.)<p>A human brain has a severe limitation though. It can&#x27;t consume more or less energy even if it I wanted to. AlphaGo could double, triple, etc its power consumption and expect to improve its performance.<p>The brain also took decades to train. Computers also have the advantage of being identical. You can&#x27;t train any brain to be a master level Go player.<p>I just don&#x27;t see brains as the high watermark of intelligence. They occupy a very specific niche in what I assume is a vast unbounded landscape of possible intelligences.