There's been a lot of interest over the idea that an "Artificial brain is 10 years away", which is what Professor Henry Markram told the ultra-hip TED conference in Oxford the other day.
That's an amazing idea. But Markram said something else even more astonishing, which, for some reason, has not got nearly as much attention:
"There are two billion people on the planet affected by mental disorder," he told the audience.
Two billion people. One in three.
This was presumably a throw-away remark, something he said in order to emphasise the importance of understanding the brain. But this makes it even more amazing: we have reached the point where no-one bats an eyelid at the idea that mental illness affects one in three people worldwide.
Well, if this is what we believe now, I think we need to stop beating about the bush with numbers like one in four ...
