This might be old news. Just in case it's not, here's a quote from Dr Hugo
de Garis, and a lead to his sites:
`I head the Brain Builder Group at ATR, a research lab in Kyoto, Japan. I
expect, with the help of
my group, to build an artificial brain with a billion artificial neurons,
with evolved cellular automata
(CA) based neural circuits, by the year 2001. We already have 10 million
neurons, and expect to
achieve our target on time. By evolving neural net modules with roughly 100
neurons each, at
ELECTRONIC SPEEDS in special evolvable hardware, we will be able to assemble
these
modules (each with its own evolved user specified function) into brain
architectures. Examples of
future applications are :- robot kittens with 1000 behaviors, household
cleaner robots, etc. 20 years
from now, brain-like computers should generate a trillion dollar industry.'
He's at
http://www.hip.atr.co.jp/~degaris/
Chow, Damien Broderick