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Factual: Science & Nature

Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

Answering your questions about life, Earth and the universe

We take your questions about life, Earth and the universe to researchers hunting for answers at the frontiers of knowledge.

CS_Brains&Computers_Getty63.jpg

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CrowdScience: How is Your Brain Better Than a Computer?

Is Your Brain Better Than A Computer?

How is Your Brain Better Than a Computer?

BBC World Service - CrowdScience, How is Your Brain Better Than a Computer?

How computers can be faster, but brains are still better

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)

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