“The human brain’s processing power is estimated at about 38 petaflops. But all

—“The human brain’s processing power is estimated at about 38 petaflops. But all it needs to operate is about 20 watts of energy.”—

That’s less than half of the current supercomputer (that runs on algorithms). But an algorithmic computer that could produce anywhere near the plasticity of the human brain would need thousands of times that processing power.

Back in, i dunno, mid 2000’s I told people that the reason I got out of AI was when I understood that the power needed to create a general AI with current technology would turn the surface of the earth to cinders. And of course I was speaking (as usual) illustratively and therefore hyperbolically.

But you know, the whole point is, that it’s actually a hardware problem. Most of what we need to do is not calculate, but to search. Algorithms calculate. (expensive). Search is cheap. And while many models require calculation, most of what humans need is to do is search.