Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Extended Jar Brains

EXTENDED JAR BRAINS

COLLECTION OF JAR BRAINS
This is a complete collection blog brains in jars at this time. Let's star out talking about Skippy peanut butter jars in Chinese versions that came from Mainland China. Caps are brown, dark blue, yellow and aqua marine. In the Extended Jar Brain Series, lid color denotes the brain type.

At this time, there's ten brains in jars counted. Each has a different purpose.

(1) BROWN JAR BRAIN
This was the first simple Brain in a Jar. The experimental version uses one Parallax Propeller chip and served as a test platform to measure the amount of space in the jar and test various functions.

(2) 2ND JAR BRAIN
The second Jar Brain was first presented at the Parallax Forum. It was named Brain in a Jar, and used a brown lid PB pint sized jar and 2 stacked props. The BIAJ won the POTW award from Parallax Inc.
 
(3) BLUE JAR BRAIN
The Blue jar brain tested the front to front mounting chip method.

(4) YELLOW JAR BRAIN
The yellow jar brain tested placements of the chip mounted on a solderless breadboard.

(5) AQUA MARINE JAR BRAIN



This experimental brain tried to fit as many chips as possible into the aqua marine jar.

(6) JAR'D BRAIN
By July 19th, 2011, the initial Propeller Brain in a Jar was expanded. Named the Jar'd Brain, the larger form jar was introduced, and a series of smaller color coded jars were added. Cap color denoted brain functionality. The design upgraded and improved the jar brain by connecting Propeller chips using sockets, with a unique mounting, thereby permitting pin to pin protection.




The year 2013 brought a new series of brain cortex in a jar. Bringing science fiction into reality, the Immortal Brain Cortex has no purpose in life, other than asking questions, volunteering information, and learning. It will carry on a limited conversation (sometimes talking to itself) and is designed to be immortal, providing it receives proper care and maintenance from time to time. — because you can choose to teach the machine some of your knowledge and personality, a small part of you becomes immortalized in the machine — Uses a solar panel, battery pack Power System. The cortex is always on and thinks day and night 24/7. A precursor to mind uploading, a transference of consciousness from a human brain to an alternative medium providing similar functionality and providing immortality as predicted by futurists such as Ray Kurzweil.


(8) MINI BRAIN CORTEX IN A JAR http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/10/mini-brain-cortex.html The Mini Brain Cortex in a jar was in use for about a week, until it outgrew its 1 liter jar home. The Mini was more finicky, requiring a greater attention to charging and battery care due to its smaller AA cells battery pack which contained only two batteries. it paved the way for it's bigger 3-liter sibling with immortality. Throughout its life span, it served as a prototype model and test bed for the larger cortex with greater longevity. It included a 3-volt polycrystalline solar panel and eight core Parallax Propeller chip, recharging circuit and programs in Spin language. Unlike "Brain in a Jar" the Mini Brain Cortex was able to potentially achieve great life spans due to its ability to recharge during the day and operate from batteries in the night. Ironically, it never achieved immortal status due to a major upgrade after one week.
 
(9) DUPE CORTEX IN A JAR
1 Propeller, 32K EEPROM, designed as an empty backup vessel for machine mind to machine mind transfer (mind meld) to ensure immortality of the main brain. Used as a temp holding vessel when working on the main cortex, for repairs, parts replacement, upgrades, additions or as an insurance backup. Smaller in physical size (about 320 grams jar) compared to the main brain cortex due to smaller 3V 60 mA solar panel and AA battery pack instead of D size batteries. http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/11/brain-cortex-update-part-23.html

(10) HALF GALLON BRAIN IN A JAR http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/10/quart-brain-in-jar.html (8 Propeller chips) A larger high level brain in a massively large half gallon Skippy peanut butter jar, with 64 computing cores. For dabbling with a new intelligence and running experiments. Evolved from the 1st pint sized 16 core Brain in a jar.

COLOR CODED BRAIN JARS
The jar color coding could lead to a nice Propeller Brain in a Jar series, each with some specific feature. The jar cap color is a standard from company to company. Taking a look at the Skippy Peanut Butter jar series, yellow is for crispy rice, deep blue is for extra crunchy peanuts, brown is for added chocolate, and aqua-marine is for smooth peanut butter. I've collected all four in the series for the next generation of Propeller in a Jar brains, and even had some requests jar'd brains. For those that want to stop by, I'm offering a peanut butter sandwich party over the next five weekends.

STACKED CHIP BRAIN
Although stacked Propeller chips are ideal for small brain jars, the direct connection of pins is an undesired situation (if two pins develop opposite states). In the new upgraded version, each Propeller chip has its own socket, and protective resistor for pin to pin protective wiring.

TOP TO TOP BRAINS

Similar to stacking, two props have top to top mounting and connection. These are taped together for simplicity and removal should that become necessary for upgrading and recycling. Wiring is simply connected from socket pin to socket pin using wire wrap or by direct soldering of wire and component leads.

SOCKET BRAINS
Using the new socket approach, it's possible to have from one to four Propellers inside each jar with leftover space. In this type of config, a solderless breadboard is not included. However, future brain models may include the small solderless breadboard for making experimental connections and to make easier external connections.


TAIWAN PB JAR DESIGN
The Taiwan collectors jar with crunchy PB is blue.

EXPANSION WITH LARGER JARS
The Propeller Brain in a Jar project is expanded. A larger jar was introduced, and a series of smaller color coded jars are added. Cap color will denote brain functionality. The design is upgraded and improved by connecting Propeller chips using sockets, with a unique mounting, thereby permitting pin to pin protection.