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How is Your Brain Better Than a Computer?

Will computers ever catch up with the remarkable human brain? A million processors in Manchester are almost as powerful as a single (furry) mouse.

Why is it that computers are so much faster than brains at some tasks?

Or could human brains one day be used to better effect? Listener Praveen from India was wondering how it can be that supercomputers are so very powerful compared to the human minds that created them. So CrowdScience, with the help of a small voice-activated guest presenter, is off to discover how the first computers remembered what they were told, how a million processors are being connected together to mimic a small percentage of a human brain, and how the mind-boggling speeds of modern computing is enabling the current leaps in artificial intelligence.

Producer: Alex Mansfield
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton

Speakers:
Sarah Baines, David Lewis - Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester
James Sumner, Steve Furber - University of Manchester
Aldo Faisal - Imperial College, London.

(Photo: 3D transparent human head and brain image. Credit: Getty images)

Available now

27 minutes

Last on

Mon 21 May 2018 14:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Fri 18 May 2018 19:32GMT
  • Sat 19 May 2018 23:32GMT
  • Mon 21 May 2018 04:32GMT
  • Mon 21 May 2018 06:32GMT
  • Mon 21 May 2018 10:32GMT
  • Mon 21 May 2018 14:32GMT

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