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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>Hi Bard,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>This sounds like trouble.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>Yes, in the Human Genome Project there was a clear end-point for the development of a new measurement method. Without a clear end-point, how would we even know whether we are measuring the right thing? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>I *<b>hope</b>* that each team working on new measurement methods knows what they are trying to measure and has an independent way of assessing their success. If they don’t, then this will be a lot more like astronomy (e.g., measuring electromagnetic radiation and trying to make inferences) than like genetics. Astronomers do this because they have no alternative, but neuroscientists can and should do better.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>If the gene sequence measurement problem had been much harder, perhaps the various teams would not have been able to reach the end point. In that case, the technology development would resemble the “war on XXXX” in the sense of never reaching an end point. But even in that case, we would have been able to measure the error properties of the sequencing methods, so we could have measured progress and even done science using the imperfect measurements. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>From your description, it sounds like the measurement goals of the HBP are pretty murky.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>--Tom<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>-- <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>Thomas G. Dietterich, Distinguished Professor Voice: 541-737-5559<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>School of Electrical Engineering FAX: 541-737-1300<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'> and Computer Science URL: eecs.oregonstate.edu/~tgd<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>US Mail: 1148 Kelley Engineering Center <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>Office: 2067 Kelley Engineering Center<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR 97331-5501<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> Bard Ermentrout [mailto:ermentrout@gmail.com] <br><b>Sent:</b> Saturday, January 25, 2014 2:35 PM<br><b>To:</b> Dietterich, Tom<br><b>Cc:</b> Connectionists<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: Connectionists: Brain-like computing fanfare and big data fanfare<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>With the human genome project,there was clear endpoint. One knows when one has sequenced the human genome. With the BRAIN initiative, I would be optimistic about it if someone could tell me when we would know that we were done. But, of course we won't know when we are done. It is like the war on XXXX where you can put in whatever you like for XXXX. Until we know the right questions to ask we will get nowhere. We'll amass a ton of data, but unlike the genome where there is an underlying theory ( we know genes code for proteins and that other parts of the genome are regulatory) we have no such theory of the nervous system. Everyone agrees s to what the genetic code is, but pick any random assortment of N neuroscientists, and there will be O(N) theories as to the code.<br><br>--Bard Ermentrout <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><br>On Jan 25, 2014, at 3:39 PM, "Thomas G. Dietterich" <<a href="mailto:tgd@eecs.oregonstate.edu">tgd@eecs.oregonstate.edu</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></div><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>I’ve enjoyed this provocative exchange. It reminds me very much of the discussion in the late 80s about whether to invest $3B in sequencing the human genome. The lab scientists who studied individual genes and metabolic pathways complained that this lacked any detailed guiding hypotheses and would just be a waste of money. The sequencing advocates promised that it would be revolutionary. It turned out that they were right. In fact, the technology was much more effective and much cheaper than they had dared to hope.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>The current BRAIN initiative is investing a similar amount of money in developing new sensing and measurement technologies. If we look at the history of science, we see many cases in which new instruments led to giant leaps forward: telescopes, microscopes, x-ray crystallography, MRI, interferometry, rapid throughput DNA, RNA, and protein sequencing. Of course every new technology will have biases and artifacts, and part of the process of developing a new technology is understanding these and how to compensate for them. Often, this advances the science as well.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>Sometimes it turns out that the instruments are only very indirectly capturing the underlying processes. This is where the big data argument gets interesting. If we look at the kind of data collected on the internet, it is almost always of this type. For many ecommerce applications, it suffices to build a predictive model of customer behavior. And this is the main contribution of applied machine learning. The bigger the data sets, the more accurate these predictive models can become. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>Unfortunately, such models are not very useful in science, because the goal of neuroscience, for example, is not to just to predict human behavior but to understand how that behavior is generated. If we only have “indirect” measurements, we must fit models where the “real” variables are latent. Making sound scientific inferences about latent variables is extremely difficult and relies on having very good models of how the latent variables produce the observed signal. Issues of identifiability and bias must be addressed, and there are also very challenging computational problems, because latent variable models typically exhibit many local optima. Regularization, the favorite tool of machine learning, usually worsens the biases and limits our ability to draw statistical inferences. If your model is fundamentally not identifiable, then it doesn’t matter how big your data are.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>Every scientific experiment (or expenditure) involves risk, and every scientist must “place bets” on what will work. I’ll place mine on improving our measurement technology, because I think it can get us closer to measuring the critical causal variables. But I agree with Jim that not enough effort goes into the unglamorous process of figuring out what it is that our instruments are actually measuring. And if we don’t understand that, then our scientific inferences are likely to be wrong. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>-- </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>Thomas G. Dietterich, Distinguished Professor Voice: 541-737-5559</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>School of Electrical Engineering FAX: 541-737-1300</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'> and Computer Science URL: <a href="http://eecs.oregonstate.edu/~tgd">eecs.oregonstate.edu/~tgd</a></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>US Mail: 1148 Kelley Engineering Center </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>Office: 2067 Kelley Engineering Center</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'>Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR 97331-5501</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New","serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> Connectionists [<a href="mailto:connectionists-bounces@mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu">mailto:connectionists-bounces@mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>james bower<br><b>Sent:</b> Saturday, January 25, 2014 9:05 AM<br><b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:jose@psychology.rutgers.edu">jose@psychology.rutgers.edu</a><br><b>Cc:</b> Connectionists<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: Connectionists: Brain-like computing fanfare and big data fanfare</span><o:p></o:p></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Hi Jose,<o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Ah, neuroimaging - don’t get me started. Not all, but a great deal of neuroimaging has become a modern form of phrenology IMHO, distorting not only neuroscience, but it turns out, increasingly business too. To wit:<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>At present I am actually much more concerned (and involved) in the use of brain imaging in what has come to be called "Neuro-marketing”. Many on this list are perhaps not aware, but while we worry about the effect of over interpretation of neuroimaging data within neuroscience, the effect of this kind of data in the business world is growing and not good. Although my guess is that those of you in the United States might have noted the rather large and absurd marketing campaign by Lumosity and the sellers of other ‘brain training” games. A number of neuroscientists are actually now getting in this business.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>As some of you know, almost as long as I have been involved in computational neuroscience, I have also been involved in exploring the use of games for children’s learning. In the game/learning world, the misuse of neuroscience and especially brain imaging has become excessive. It wouldn’t be appropriate to belabor this point on this list - although the use of neuroscience by the NN community does, in my view, often cross over into a kind of neuro-marketing. <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>For those that are interested in the more general abuses of neuro-marketing, here is a link to the first ever session I organized in the game development world based on my work as a neurobiologist:<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Joqmf4baaT8&list=PL1G85ERLMItAA0Bgvh0PoZ5iGc6cHEv6f&index=16">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Joqmf4baaT8&list=PL1G85ERLMItAA0Bgvh0PoZ5iGc6cHEv6f&index=16</a><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>As set up for that video, you should know that in his keynote address the night before, Jessi Schelll (of Schell Games and CMU) introduced his talk by saying that he was going to tell the audience what neuroscientists have figured out about human brains, going on to claim that they (we) have discovered that human brains come in two forms, goat brains and sheep brains. Of course the talk implied that the goats were in the room and the sheep were out there to be sold to. (although as I noted on the twitter feed at the time, there was an awful lot of ‘baaing’ going on in the audience :-) ).<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Anyway, the second iteration of my campaign to try to bring some balance and sanity to neuro-marketing, will take place at SxSW in Austin in march, in another session I have organized on the subject.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://schedule.sxsw.com/2014/events/event_IAP22511">http://schedule.sxsw.com/2014/events/event_IAP22511</a><o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>If you happen to be in Austin for SxSW feel free to stop by. :-)<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>The larger point, I suppose, is that while we debate these things within our own community, our debate and our claims have unintended consequences in larger society, with companies like Lumosity, in effect marketing to the baby boomers the idea (false) that using “the science of neuroplasticity’ and doing something as simple as playing games “designed by neuroscientists” can revert their brains to teen age form. fRMI and Neuropsychology used extensively as evidence.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Perhaps society has become so accustomed to outlandish claims and over selling that they won’t hold us accountable.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Or perhaps they will.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>Jim<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> p.s. (always a ps) I have also recently proposed that we declare a moratorium on neuroimaging studies until we at least know how the signal is related to actual neural-activity. Seems rather foolish to base so much speculation and interpretation on a signal we don’t understand. Easy enough to poo poo cell spikers - but to my knowledge, there is no evidence that neural computing is performed through the generation of areas of red, yellow, green and blue. :-)<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>On Jan 25, 2014, at 9:43 AM, Stephen José Hanson <<a href="mailto:jose@psychology.rutgers.edu">jose@psychology.rutgers.edu</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Indeed. Its like we never stopped arguing about this for the last 30 years! Maybe this is a brain principle<br>integrated fossilized views of the brain principles.<br><br>I actually agree with John.. and disagree with you JIm... surprise surprise...seems like old times..<br><br>The most disconcerting thing about the emergence the new new neural network field(s)<br>is that the NIH Connectome RFPs contain language about large scale network functions...and<br>yet when Program managers are directly asked whether fMRI or any neuroimaging methods<br>would be compliant with the RFP.. the answer is "NO".<br><br>So once the neuroscience cell spikers get done analyzing 1000 or 10000 or even a 1M neurons<br>at a circuit level.. we still won't know why someone makes decisions about the shoes they wear; much<br>less any other mental function! Hopefully neuroimaging will be relevant again.<br><br>Just saying.<br><br>Cheers.<br><br>Steve<br>PS. Hi Gary! Dijon!<o:p></o:p></p><table class=MsoNormalTable border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width="100%" style='width:100.0%'><tr><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal>Stephen José Hanson<br>Director RUBIC (Rutgers Brain Imaging Center)<br>Professor of Psychology<br>Member of Cognitive Science Center (NB)<br>Member EE Graduate Program (NB)<br>Member CS Graduate Program (NB)<br>Rutgers University <o:p></o:p></p><pre> <o:p></o:p></pre><pre>email: <a href="mailto:jose@psychology.rutgers.edu">jose@psychology.rutgers.edu</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>web: <a href="http://psychology.rutgers.edu/~jose">psychology.rutgers.edu/~jose</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>lab: <a href="http://www.rumba.rutgers.edu">www.rumba.rutgers.edu</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>fax: 866-434-7959<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>voice: 973-353-3313 (RUBIC)<o:p></o:p></pre></td></tr></table><p class=MsoNormal><br>On Fri, 2014-01-24 at 17:31 -0600, james bower wrote:<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Well, well - remarkable!!! an actual debate on connectionists - just like the old days - in fact REMARKABLY like the old days. <o:p></o:p></p><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>Same issues - how ‘brain-like’ is ‘brain-like’ and how much hype is ‘brain-like’ generating by itself. How much do engineers really know about neuroscience, and how much do neurobiologists really know about the brain (both groups tend to claim they know a lot - now and then). <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>I went to the NIPS meeting this year for the first time in more than 25 years. Some of the older timers on connectionists may remember that I was one of the founding members of NIPS - and some will also remember that a few years of trying to get some kind of real interaction between neuroscience and then ‘neural networks’ lead me to give up and start, with John Miller, the CNS meetings - focused specifically on computational neuroscience. Another story - <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>At NIPS this year, there was a very large focus on “big data” of course, with "machine learning" largely replaced "Neural Networks" in most talk titles. I was actually a panelist (most had no idea of my early involvement with NIPS) on big data in on-line learning (generated by Ed-X, Kahn, etc) workshop. I was interested, because for 15 years I have also been running Numedeon Inc, whose virtual world for kids, <a href="http://whyville.net/">Whyville.net</a> was the first game based immersive worlds, and is still one of the biggest and most innovative. (no MOOCs there). <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>From the panel I made the assertion, as I had, in effect, many years ago, that if you have a big data problem - it is likely you are not taking anything resembling a ‘brain-like’ approach to solving it. The version almost 30 years ago, when everyone was convinced that the relatively simple Hopfield Network could solve all kinds of hard problems, was my assertion that, in fact, simple ‘Neural Networks, or simple Neural Network learning rules were unlikely to work very well, because, almost certainly, you have to build a great deal of knowledge about the nature of the problem into all levels (including the input layer) of your network to get it to work. <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>Now, many years later, everyone seems convinced that you can figure things out by amassing an enormous amount of data and working on it. <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>It has been a slow revolution (may actually not even be at the revolutionary stage yet), BUT it is very likely that the nervous system (like all model based systems) doesn’t collect tons of data to figure out with feedforward processing and filtering, but instead, collects the data it thinks it needs to confirm what it already believes to be true. In other words, it specifically avoids the big data problem at all cost. It is willing to suffer the consequence that occasionally (more and more recently for me), you end up talking to someone for 15 minutes before you realize that they are not the person you thought they were. <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>An enormous amount of engineering and neuroscience continues to think that the feedforward pathway is from the sensors to the inside - rather than seeing this as the actual feedback loop. Might to some sound like a semantic quibble, but I assure you it is not. <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>If you believe as I do, that the brain solves very hard problems, in very sophisticated ways, that involve, in some sense the construction of complex models about the world and how it operates in the world, and that those models are manifest in the complex architecture of the brain - then simplified solutions are missing the point. <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>What that means inevitably, in my view, is that the only way we will ever understand what brain-like is, is to pay tremendous attention experimentally and in our models to the actual detailed anatomy and physiology of the brains circuits and cells. <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>I saw none of that at NIPS - and in fact, I see less and less of that at the CNS meeting as well. <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>All too easy to simplify, pontificate, and sell. <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>So, I sympathize with Juyang Wang’s frustration. <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>If there is any better evidence that we are still in the dark, it is that we are still having the same debate 30 years later, with the same ruffled feathers, the same bold assertions (mine included) and the same seeming lack of progress. <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>If anyone is interested, here is a chapter I recently wrote of the book I edited on “20 years of progress in computational neuroscience (Springer) on the last 40 years trying to understand the workings of a single neuron (The cerebellar Purkinje cell), using models. <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/5xxut90h65x4ifx/272602_1_En_5_DeltaPDF%20copy.pdf">https://www.dropbox.com/s/5xxut90h65x4ifx/272602_1_En_5_DeltaPDF%20copy.pdf</a> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>Perhaps some sense of how far we have yet to go. <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>Jim Bower <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>On Jan 24, 2014, at 4:00 PM, Ralph Etienne-Cummings <<a href="mailto:ralph.etiennecummings@gmail.com">ralph.etiennecummings@gmail.com</a>> wrote: <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Hey, I am happy when our taxpayer money, of which I contribute way more than I get back, funds any science in all branches of the government. <br><br>Neuromorphic and brain-like computing is on the rise ... Let's please not shoot ourselves in the foot with in-fighting!!<br><br>Thanks,<br>Ralph's Android<o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>On Jan 24, 2014 4:13 PM, "Juyang Weng" <<a href="mailto:weng@cse.msu.edu">weng@cse.msu.edu</a>> wrote: <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Yes, Gary, you are correct politically, not to upset the "emperor" since he is always right and he never falls behind the literature. <br><br>But then no clear message can ever get across. Falling behind the literature is still the fact. More, the entire research community that does brain research falls behind badly the literature of necessary disciplines. The current U.S. infrastructure of this research community does not fit at all the brain subject it studies! This is not a joking matter. We need to wake up, please. <br><br>Azriel Rosenfeld criticized the entire computer vision filed in his invited talk at CVPR during early 1980s: "just doing business as usual" and "more or less the same" . However, the entire computer vision field still has not woken up after 30 years! As another example, I respect your colleague Terry Sejnowski, but I must openly say that I object to his "we need more data" as the key message for the U.S. BRAIN Project. This is another example of "just doing business as usual" and so everybody will not be against you. <br><br>Several major disciplines are closely related to the brain, but the scientific community is still very much fragmented, not willing to wake up. Some of our government officials only say superficial worlds like "Big Data" because we like to hear. This cost is too high for our taxpayers. <br><br>-John <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>On 1/24/14 2:19 PM, Gary Cottrell wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>Hi John - <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>It's great that you have an over-arching theory, but if you want people to read it, it would be better not to disrespect people in your emails. You say you respect Matthew, but then you accuse him of falling behind in the literature because he hasn't read your book. Politeness (and modesty!) will get you much farther than the tone you have taken. <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>g. <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>On Jan 24, 2014, at 6:27 PM, Juyang Weng <<a href="mailto:weng@cse.msu.edu">weng@cse.msu.edu</a>> wrote: <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Dear Matthew:<br><br>My apology if my words are direct, so that people with short attention spans can quickly get my points. I do respect you.<br><br>You wrote: "to build hardware that works in a more brain-like way than conventional computers do. This is not what is usually meant by research in neural networks."<br><br>Your statement is absolutely not true. Your term "brain-like way" is as old as "brain-like computing". Read about the 14 neurocomputers built by 1988 in Robert Hecht-Nielsen, "Neurocomputing: picking the human brain", IEEE Spectrum 25(3), March 1988, pp. 36-41. Hardware will not solve the fundamental problems of the current human severe lack in understanding the brain, no matter how many computers are linked together. Neither will the current "Big Data" fanfare from NSF in U.S.. The IBM's brain project has similar fundamental flaws and the IBM team lacks key experts. <br><br>Some of the NSF managers have been turning blind eyes to breakthrough work on brain modeling for over a decade, but they want to waste more taxpayer's money into its "Big Data" fanfare and other "try again" fanfares. It is a scientific shame for NSF in a developed country like U.S. to do that shameful politics without real science, causing another large developing country like China to also echo "Big Data". "Big Data" was called "Large Data", well known in Pattern Recognition for many years. Stop playing shameful politics in science! <br><br>You wrote: "Nobody is claiming a `brain-scale theory that bridges the wide gap,' or even close." <br><br>To say that, you have not read the book: <a href="http://www.brain-mind-institute.org/press.html">Natural and Artificial Intelligence</a>. You are falling behind the literature so bad as some of our NSF project managers. With their lack of knowledge, they did not understand that the "bridge" was in print on their desks and in the literature. <br><br>-John<o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>On 1/23/14 6:15 PM, Matthew Cook wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>Dear John, <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>I think all of us on this list are interested in brain-like computing, so I don't understand your negativity on the topic. <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>Many of the speakers are involved in efforts to build hardware that works in a more brain-like way than conventional computers do. This is not what is usually meant by research in neural networks. I suspect the phrase "brain-like computing" is intended as an umbrella term that can cover all of these efforts. <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>I think you are reading far more into the announcement than is there. Nobody is claiming a "brain-scale theory that bridges the wide gap," or even close. To the contrary, the announcement is very cautious, saying that intense research is "gradually increasing our understanding" and "beginning to shed light on the human brain". In other words, the research advances slowly, and we are at the beginning. There is certainly no claim that any of the speakers has finished the job. <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>Similarly, the announcement refers to "successful demonstration of some of the underlying principles [of the brain] in software and hardware", which implicitly acknowledges that we do not have all the principles. There is nothing like a claim that anyone has enough principles to "explain highly integrated brain functions". <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>You are concerned that this workshop will avoid the essential issue of the wide gap between neuron-like computing and highly integrated brain functions. What makes you think it will avoid this? We are all interested in filling this gap, and the speakers (well, the ones who I know) all either work on this, or work on supporting people who work on this, or both. <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>This looks like it will be a very nice workshop, with talks from leaders in the field on a variety of topics, and I wish I were able to attend it. <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>Matthew <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>On Jan 23, 2014, at 7:08 PM, Juyang Weng wrote: <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Dear Anders,<br><br>Interesting topic about the brain! But Brain-Like Computing is misleading because neural networks have been around for at least 70 years.<br><br>I quote: "We are now approaching the point when our knowledge will enable successful demonstrations of some of the underlying principles in software and hardware, i.e. brain-like computing."<br><br>What are the underlying principles? I am concerned that projects like "Brain-Like Computing" avoid essential issues: <br>the wide gap between neuron-like computing and well-known highly integrated brain functions.<br>Continuing this avoidance would again create bad names for "brain-like computing", just such behaviors did for "neural networks".<br><br>Henry Markram criticized IBM's brain project which does miss essential brain principles, but has he published such principles?<br>Modeling individual neurons more and more precisely will explain highly integrated brain functions? From what I know, definitely not, by far. <br><br>Has any of your 10 speakers published any brain-scale theory that bridges the wide gap? Are you aware of any such published theories? <br><br>I am sorry for giving a CC to the list, but many on the list said that they like to hear discussions instead of just event announcements. <br><br>-John<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>On 1/13/14 12:14 PM, Anders Lansner wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><h1>Workshop on Brain-Like Computing, February 5-6 2014 <o:p></o:p></h1><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>The exciting prospects of developing brain-like information processing is one of the Deans Forum focus areas.<br>As a means to encourage progress in this research area a Workshop is arranged February 5th-6th 2014 on KTH campus in Stockholm. <br><br>The human brain excels over contemporary computers and robots in processing real-time unstructured information and uncertain data as well as in controlling a complex mechanical platform with multiple degrees of freedom like the human body. Intense experimental research complemented by computational and informatics efforts are gradually increasing our understanding of underlying processes and mechanisms in small animal and mammalian brains and are beginning to shed light on the human brain. We are now approaching the point when our knowledge will enable successful demonstrations of some of the underlying principles in software and hardware, i.e. brain-like computing.<br><br>This workshop assembles experts, from the partners and also other leading names in the field, to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art in theoretical, software, and hardware aspects of brain-like computing.<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p><h2>List of speakers <o:p></o:p></h2><table class=MsoNormalTable border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width=404 style='width:303.0pt'><tr><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><b>Speaker</b><br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><b>Affiliation</b><br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Giacomo Indiveri<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>ETH Zürich<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Abigail Morrison<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Forschungszentrum Jülich<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Mark Ritter<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>IBM Watson Research Center<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Guillermo Cecchi<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>IBM Watson Research Center<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Anders Lansner<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>KTH Royal Institute of Technology<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Ahmed Hemani<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>KTH Royal Institute of Technology<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Steve Furber<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>University of Manchester<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Kazuyuki Aihara<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>University of Tokyo<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Karlheinz Meier<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Heidelberg University<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Andreas Schierwagen<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Leipzig University<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr></table><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><br> <br><br><b>For signing up to the Workshop please use the registration form found at <u><a href="http://bit.ly/1dkuBgR">http://bit.ly/1dkuBgR</a></u></b><br><br><b>You need to sign up before January 28th.</b><br><br><b>Web page: <a href="http://www.kth.se/en/om/internationellt/university-networks/deans-forum/workshop-on-brain-like-computing-1.442038">http://www.kth.se/en/om/internationellt/university-networks/deans-forum/workshop-on-brain-like-computing-1.442038</a> </b><o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>******************************************<br><br>Anders Lansner<br><br>Professor in Computer Science, Computational biology<br><br>School of Computer Science and Communication<br><br>Stockholm University and Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)<br><br><a href="mailto:ala@kth.se">ala@kth.se</a>, <a href="tel:%2B46-70-2166122">+46-70-2166122</a><br><br> <br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p><div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><hr size=2 width="100%" align=center></div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><table class=MsoNormalTable border=0 cellpadding=0><tr><td style='padding:.75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://www.avast.com/"><span style='text-decoration:none'><img border=0 id="_x0000_i1026" src="http://static.avast.com/emails/avast-mail-stamp.png"></span></a><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:.75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Detta epostmeddelande innehåller inget virus eller annan skadlig kod för <a href="http://www.avast.com/">avast! Antivirus</a> är aktivt. <br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr></table><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><pre>-- <o:p></o:p></pre><pre>--<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Juyang (John) Weng, Professor<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Department of Computer Science and Engineering<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>MSU Cognitive Science Program and MSU Neuroscience Program<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>428 S Shaw Ln Rm 3115<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Michigan State University<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>East Lansing, MI 48824 USA<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Tel: <a href="tel:517-353-4388">517-353-4388</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Fax: <a href="tel:517-432-1061">517-432-1061</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Email: <a href="mailto:weng@cse.msu.edu">weng@cse.msu.edu</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>URL: <a href="http://www.cse.msu.edu/%7Eweng/">http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>----------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></pre><pre> <o:p></o:p></pre></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><pre>-- <o:p></o:p></pre><pre>--<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Juyang (John) Weng, Professor<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Department of Computer Science and Engineering<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>MSU Cognitive Science Program and MSU Neuroscience Program<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>428 S Shaw Ln Rm 3115<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Michigan State University<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>East Lansing, MI 48824 USA<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Tel: <a href="tel:517-353-4388">517-353-4388</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Fax: <a href="tel:517-432-1061">517-432-1061</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Email: <a href="mailto:weng@cse.msu.edu">weng@cse.msu.edu</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>URL: <a href="http://www.cse.msu.edu/%7Eweng/">http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>----------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></pre><pre> <o:p></o:p></pre></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>[I am in Dijon, France on sabbatical this year. To call me, Skype works best (gwcottrell), or dial <a href="tel:%2B33%20788319271">+33 788319271</a>] <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>Gary Cottrell <a href="tel:858-534-6640">858-534-6640</a> FAX: <a href="tel:858-534-7029">858-534-7029</a> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>My schedule is here: <a href="http://tinyurl.com/b7gxpwo">http://tinyurl.com/b7gxpwo</a> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><br>Computer Science and Engineering 0404 <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>IF USING FED EX INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING LINE: <br>CSE Building, Room 4130<br>University of California San Diego<br>9500 Gilman Drive # 0404<br>La Jolla, Ca. 92093-0404<br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. -- Abraham Lincoln <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>"Of course, none of this will be easy. If it was, we would already know everything there was about how the brain works, and presumably my life would be simpler here. It could explain all kinds of things that go on in Washington." -Barack Obama <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>"Probably once or twice a week we are sitting at dinner and Richard says, 'The cortex is hopeless,' and I say, 'That's why I work on the worm.'" Dr. Bargmann said.<br><br>"A grapefruit is a lemon that saw an opportunity and took advantage of it." - note written on a door in Amsterdam on Lijnbaansgracht.<br><br>"Physical reality is great, but it has a lousy search function." -Matt Tong<br><br>"Only connect!" -E.M. Forster<br><br>"You always have to believe that tomorrow you might write the matlab program that solves everything - otherwise you never will." -Geoff Hinton <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>"There is nothing objective about objective functions" - Jay McClelland<br><br>"I am awaiting the day when people remember the fact that discovery does not work by deciding what you want and then discovering it."<br>-David Mermin<br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:gary@ucsd.edu">gary@ucsd.edu</a><br>Home page: <a href="http://www-cse.ucsd.edu/%7Egary/">http://www-cse.ucsd.edu/~gary/</a> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><pre>-- <o:p></o:p></pre><pre>--<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Juyang (John) Weng, Professor<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Department of Computer Science and Engineering<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>MSU Cognitive Science Program and MSU Neuroscience Program<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>428 S Shaw Ln Rm 3115<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Michigan State University<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>East Lansing, MI 48824 USA<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Tel: <a href="tel:517-353-4388">517-353-4388</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Fax: <a href="tel:517-432-1061">517-432-1061</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Email: <a href="mailto:weng@cse.msu.edu">weng@cse.msu.edu</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>URL: <a href="http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/">http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>----------------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></pre><pre> <o:p></o:p></pre></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <br><br> <br><br>Dr. James M. Bower Ph.D.<br><br>Professor of Computational Neurobiology<br><br>Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies.<br><br>15355 Lambda Drive<br><br>University of Texas Health Science Center <br><br>San Antonio, Texas 78245<br><br> <br><br><b>Phone: 210 382 0553</b><br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:bower@uthscsa.edu">bower@uthscsa.edu</a><br><br>Web: <a href="http://www.bower-lab.org/">http://www.bower-lab.org</a><br><br>twitter: superid101<br><br>linkedin: Jim Bower<br><br> <br><br>CONFIDENTIAL NOTICE:<br><br>The contents of this email and any attachments to it may be privileged or contain privileged and confidential information. This information is only for the viewing or use of the intended recipient. If you have received this e-mail in error or are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of, or the taking of any action in reliance upon, any of the information contained in this e-mail, or<br><br>any of the attachments to this e-mail, is strictly prohibited and that this e-mail and all of the attachments to this e-mail, if any, must be<br><br>immediately returned to the sender or destroyed and, in either case, this e-mail and all attachments to this e-mail must be immediately deleted from your computer without making any copies hereof and any and all hard copies made must be destroyed. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by e-mail immediately.<br><br> <br><br><br><o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><table class=MsoNormalTable border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width="100%" style='width:100.0%'><tr><td style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>-- <o:p></o:p></p></td></tr></table></div></div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='color:black'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='color:black'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#950004'>Dr. James M. Bower Ph.D.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>Professor of Computational Neurobiology</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='color:#4200A8'>Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>15355 Lambda Drive</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>University of Texas Health Science Center </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;color:black'>San Antonio, Texas 78245</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='color:black'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span style='font-size:13.0pt;color:black'>Phone: 210 382 0553</span></b><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='color:black'>Email: <a href="mailto:bower@uthscsa.edu">bower@uthscsa.edu</a></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='color:black'>Web: <a href="http://www.bower-lab.org">http://www.bower-lab.org</a></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='color:black'>twitter: superid101</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='color:black'>linkedin: Jim Bower</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='color:black'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='color:#B15913'>CONFIDENTIAL NOTICE:</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='color:#B15913'>The contents of this email and any attachments to it may be privileged or contain privileged and confidential information. This information is only for the viewing or use of the intended recipient. If you have received this e-mail in error or are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of, or the taking of any action in reliance upon, any of the information contained in this e-mail, or</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='color:#B15913'>any of the attachments to this e-mail, is strictly prohibited and that this e-mail and all of the attachments to this e-mail, if any, must be</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='color:#B15913'>immediately returned to the sender or destroyed and, in either case, this e-mail and all attachments to this e-mail must be immediately deleted from your computer without making any copies hereof and any and all hard copies made must be destroyed. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by e-mail immediately.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='color:black'> </span><o:p></o:p></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote></div></body></html>