I did note the speed of the simulation, but I don’t think that’s important — or rather, it’s more a symptom of the two main hurdles: power consumption and heat output. The main reason that the simulation runs so slowly is that they used older chips, which run slower but generate less heat.

So in order for Moore’s Law (broadly interpreted) to continue, they’ll either have to overcome these obstacles in silicon chips, or come up with new computing substrates that do so.

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If machine translation is in fact a desirable goal, I don’t see total human brain simulation as a very likely way to make it economical within our lifetimes.
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I’d say it’s a very desirable goal, just maybe not for us translators.

Although brain simulation may not be the only or even best way of achieving general AI, it’s the only sure way so far, as far as I know.

I’ve written about this before, but as I see it playing out, we do get AI in our lifetimes, but at first it’s so expensive that it’s not cost effective to use it on translation and the like. But then, as the cost inevitably comes down, AI takes over every facet of human labor. Of course modulo Moore’s Law ending, end of humanity, etc.

If machine translation is in fact a desirable goal, I don’t see total human brain simulation as a very likely way to make it economical within our lifetimes.