Silicon Valley is mostly a world of practical technology—applying principles from pure science to create handy gadgets. But today, Hewlett Packard announced a new electrical component born of theoretical physics. The device, a nanoscale component called a "memristor," requires no power to retain data, which it can store more densely than a hard drive and access about as fast as a computers RAM memory—potentially allowing it to replace both components in the future.
This might be the missing link to EFFECTIVELY be able to produce huge arrays of artificial neurons and interconnections between them. Because that's what it takes to make something useful - large numbers of them, like millions. I just can't picture myself how those memristors can learn though and how they can decide to what neighbour neurons they should connect. But someone will (or already have) figured that out I guess. /Ruben RJJournal
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