根據(jù)在美國 IBM Almaden研究中心舉行的一場感知運算研討會上發(fā)表之技術(shù)簡報，大數(shù)據(jù)(big data)分析學(xué)不但能模仿人腦，甚至有可能取而代之。
在該場研討會上，風(fēng)險投資業(yè)界資深人士、也是Sun Microsystems 共同創(chuàng)辦人的Vinod Khosla呼吁，科技演進(jìn)應(yīng)該朝向藉由把更多醫(yī)療決策交由智能系統(tǒng)進(jìn)行，以減少人為疏失。他認(rèn)為，目前的醫(yī)療都仰賴醫(yī)學(xué)專家的意見，因此往往是：“根據(jù)一連串通常正確比錯誤來得多的偏見(bias)；我懷疑我們是不是需要讓人類跳出該種循環(huán)?！?
Khosla列舉了許多研究，量化人為疏失對醫(yī)療診斷與治療方面帶來的影響；他主張應(yīng)該投入更多資源在醫(yī)療傳感器與分析學(xué)方面的研究，而他自己目前也投資多家開發(fā)相關(guān)技術(shù)的新創(chuàng)公司，包括AliveCor、Ginger.io、Kyron、Quanttus等。
“資料科學(xué)在未來十年為醫(yī)療領(lǐng)域帶來的貢獻(xiàn)，將比生物科學(xué)來得多。”Khosla指出，目前的一些數(shù)字醫(yī)療產(chǎn)品，像是協(xié)助學(xué)步幼兒/復(fù)健者的裝置，未來將會因 為消費者需求而提供更復(fù)雜的功能：“我認(rèn)為改變將來自消費者主導(dǎo)的醫(yī)療保健領(lǐng)域，而我希望有少數(shù)幾個典范能顛覆整個產(chǎn)業(yè)利益結(jié)構(gòu)?！?
此外，感知運算研究學(xué)者Jeff Hawkins則展示了他的新技術(shù)成果“Grok”，是一種運用于人腦新皮質(zhì)(neocortex)的技術(shù)，能藉由建立“SDR (sparse distributed representations)”模式追蹤大型數(shù)據(jù)集(large datasets)。
Grok是以Hawkins的公司所開發(fā)的一種SDR算法為基礎(chǔ)，并以開放源碼形式釋出：“我們不知道該如何以數(shù)學(xué)形式來描述它，但我認(rèn)為這會是感知運算的基本功能區(qū)塊。”
該 軟件已經(jīng)在亞馬遜(Amazon)的云端服務(wù)上使用，能針對異常數(shù)據(jù)流進(jìn)行快速偵測以及排名，并提供能快速對那些數(shù)據(jù)流進(jìn)行調(diào)查的工具。Hawkins將 該種工具形容為安裝在一個功能非?；局竽X、也就是尺寸僅“老鼠大腦新皮層的千分之一”上的“單一傳感器”──就像是一只耳朵。
“我們看到了一些不尋常的東西──而我們不知道那是如何發(fā)生、或是其根源；”他表示，“這需要在一個既定系統(tǒng)中建立物理模型，并去理解一切可能是如何運作?！?
無論如何，Hawkins聲稱Grok是一種能支持包括金融、電子商務(wù)，以及制造業(yè)等多樣化應(yīng)用領(lǐng)域的巨量數(shù)據(jù)分析工具；澳洲業(yè)者CEPT Systems已經(jīng)在自然語言識別方案，采用了Grok核心的開放源碼算法。
本文授權(quán)編譯自EE Times，版權(quán)所有，謝絕轉(zhuǎn)載
編譯：Judith Cheng
參考英文原文：Big Data May Mimic, Replace Brain，by Rick Merritt
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Big Data May Mimic, Replace Brain
Rick Merritt
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Big data analytics may both mimic the human brain and replace it, according to presentations at an IBM symposium here.
Veteran venture capitalist Vinod Khosla called for advances that reduce human error by putting more healthcare decisions into the hands of smart systems. Separately, cognitive computing researcher Jeff Hawkins showed advances in applying techniques used in the neocortex to sorting large datasets.
Today's medicine relies on doctors' expert opinions, which are often "based on a series of biases that are more often right than wrong," said Khosla, a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Sun Microsystems. "I suspect we will need humans out of the loop."
Khosla cited numerous studies quantifying the impact of human errors in diagnosing and treating health issues. He argued for more work on healthcare sensors and analytics, an area where he is currently investing in several startups including AliveCor, Ginger.io, Kyron, and Quanttus.
"Data science will do more for medicine in the next 10 years than biological science," Khosla told a symposium on cognitive computing at the IBM Almaden Research center here.
He referred to today's digital medicine products as "clumsy toddler steps" that will lead to more sophisticated offerings that empower consumers. "I think change will come from consumer-driven healthcare, and I hope a few role models will cause an avalanche of interest."
Separately, Jeff Hawkins, described his latest product, Grok. It uses a technique employed in the neocortex to track large datasets by creating so-called sparse distributed representations (SDRs).
Grok is based on an SDR algorithm Hawkins's company released as an open-source code. "We don't know how to characterize it mathematically, but I'd argue this is a basic building block of cognitive computing," he said.
The software, released for use on Amazon's cloud service, handles rapid detection and ranking of anomalies in data streams and provides tools to investigate them quickly. Hawkins described the tool as a single sensor -- like an ear -- attached to a very rudimentary brain "a thousandth the size of a mouse's neocortex."
"We see something unusual -- we don't know why it happened or its root cause -- that requires a physics model and an understanding of how things are supposed to work" in a given system, he said.
Nevertheless, he claimed the tool is a powerful one that could be applied broadly to big data analytics problems in areas as diverse as finance, web sales, and manufacturing. CEPT Systems in Austria is already using the open-source algorithm at the heart of Grok in its work on natural language recognition.
