Full Text:
Inspired by the neural architecture of a macaque brain, this ghostly neon swirl is the wiring diagram for a new kind of computer that, by some definitions, may soon be able to think. Over the past two years, IBM's cognitive computing group in San Jose, Calif., has made great strides toward designing a computer that can detect patterns, plan responses and learn from its mistakes, says Emmett McQuinn, a hardware engineer at IBM who designed the image.
This image won first place in the illustration category of the 2012 Visualization Challenge, now called the Vizzies, a long-running, annual competition co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and Popular Science magazine.Image credit: Emmett McQuinn, Theodore M. Wong, Pallab Datta, Myron D. Flickner, Raghavendra Singh, Steven K. Esser, Rathinakumar Appuswamy, William P. Risk and Dharmendra S. Modha
