Thaindian News

By Madhuri Dey
May 3, (THAINDIAN NEWS) Isaac Asimov’s stories might just be turning into reality. At least by part. Scientists, backed by the Pentagon, are aiming to make androids. Well, sort of. For the androids that they would be made would not be actually making robots with the intelligence of humans, but rather with that of cats. They claim that the task, although not an easy one, can be achieved if they are able to progress to the level of producing a brain that would be having the intelligence of the level of a cat. The attempt is being regarded as the initial step toward creating robots with the intelligence of a human, but that is still a long way to go.

The project is being funded by the Pentagon, and is part of the SyNAPSE Project, which is funded by the United States Defense Advanced Research Project Agency. Scientists have already started working in the production of several artificial brain cells that can imitate the brain cells of cats. These artificial cells are actually electronic devices. The scientists are trying to create the artificial brain by retracing the development of the feline brain over the thousands of years of evolution.

The scientists feel that it is not necessary that in order to create a brain with feline intelligence, the size of the brain also has to be the same as that of a cat. Instead, it can be somewhat smaller, given that brain size does not necessarily correspond to intelligence. Thus, the scientists feel that it would not be that difficult to create an artificial brain that would be the same as cat’s in terms of number of cells, synapses and even behavior wise.