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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body bgcolor=white lang=SV link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='color:#1F497D'>Dear John and all,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>I was not aware until this morning that my simple announcement of the workshop on ”Progress in Brain-Like Computing” at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm next week had stirred up such a vivid discussion on the list. I was on a conference trip to Singapore with only occasional web access and got back only yesterday. Allow me some comments and reflections.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>I agree with some of the original points made by John Weng on that we need brain-scale theories in order to make real progress in brain-like computing and what the focus should be. Indeed, I think we see some maybe vague contours of partial theories that wait to be integrated to a more complete understanding.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>Since the terminology of “brain-like” was criticized from different perspectives, allow me some motivation why we use this term. We could have stated “neuromorphic” but in my opinion this term leads the thoughts a bit too much towards microscopic and microcircuit levels. After all real brains not only have very many neurons and synapses but also a very complex structure in terms of specialized neural populations and projections connecting them. We have today chips and clusters that are able to simulate with reasonable throughput such multi-neural-network structures (if not too complex components …) so we can at least computationally handle this level, rather than staying with small simple networks. Personally I think that to understand principles of brain function we need to avoid a lot but not all of the complexity we see at the single neuron and synapse levels. I also prefer the term “brain-like” rather than “brain-inspired” since the former defines the goal of building computational structures that are like brains and not just to start there and then perhaps quickly, in all our inspiration, diverge away from mimicking the essential aspects of real brains.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>It is interesting to note that the subject of the discussion quickly deviated from the main content of our workshop which has to do with designing and eventually building brain-like computational architectures in silicon – or some more exotic substrate. Such research has been going on for long time and is now seeing increasing efforts. It can obviously be argued whether this is still premature or if it is now finally the right time to boost such efforts. Despite the fact that our knowledge about the brain is still not complete …<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>What also strikes me when I read this discussion is that we are still quite a divided and diverse community with minor consensus. There are many who think we are many decades away from doing the above, many who study abstract computational “deep learning” network models for classification and prediction without bothering much about the biology, many who study experimentally or model brain circuits without focusing much on what functions they perform, and many who design hardware without knowing exactly what features to include, etc. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>But I am optimistic! Perhaps, in the near future, these efforts will combine synergistically and the pieces of the puzzle will start falling in place, triggering a series of real breakthroughs in our understanding of how our brain works. To identify at what point in time and what stage in brain science this will happen is indeed critical. Then, those who have the best understanding of how to design the hardware appropriate for executing in real time or faster this integrated set of brain-like algorithms in a low-power way will be in an excellent position for exploiting such progress in many important applications – hopefully beneficial for mankind!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>This is some of the background for organizing the event I announced, which will hopefully contribute something to the further discussion on these very important topics.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>/Anders La<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext;mso-fareast-language:SV'>From:</span></b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext;mso-fareast-language:SV'> Juyang Weng [mailto:weng@cse.msu.edu] <br><b>Sent:</b> den 23 januari 2014 19:09<br><b>To:</b> Anders Lansner<br><b>Cc:</b> connectionists@cs.cmu.edu<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: Connectionists: Workshop Progress in Brain-Like Computing, February 5-6 2014<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><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><o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>On 1/13/14 12:14 PM, Anders Lansner wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></div><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><h1 style='background:white'><span lang=EN>Workshop on Brain-Like Computing, February 5-6 2014</span><o:p></o:p></h1><p style='background:white'><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt'>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. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p style='background:white'><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt'>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.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p style='background:white'><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt'>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.</span><o:p></o:p></p><h2 style='background:white'><span lang=EN>List of speakers</span><o:p></o:p></h2><table class=MsoNormalTable border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width=404 style='width:303.0pt;border-collapse:collapse'><tr style='height:15.75pt'><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:15.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><strong><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Speaker</span></strong><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:15.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><strong><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Affiliation</span></strong><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr style='height:15.75pt'><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:15.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Giacomo Indiveri</span><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:15.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>ETH Zürich</span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr style='height:15.75pt'><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:15.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Abigail Morrison</span><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:15.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Forschungszentrum Jülich</span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr style='height:15.75pt'><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:15.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Mark Ritter</span><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:15.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>IBM Watson Research Center</span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr style='height:15.75pt'><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:15.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Guillermo Cecchi</span><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:15.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>IBM Watson Research Center</span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr style='height:15.75pt'><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:15.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Anders Lansner</span><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:15.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt'>KTH Royal Institute of Technology</span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr style='height:15.75pt'><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:15.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Ahmed Hemani</span><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:15.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt'>KTH Royal Institute of Technology</span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr style='height:15.75pt'><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:15.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Steve Furber</span><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:15.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>University of Manchester</span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr style='height:15.75pt'><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:15.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Kazuyuki Aihara</span><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:15.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>University of Tokyo</span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr style='height:15.75pt'><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:15.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Karlheinz Meier</span><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:15.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Heidelberg University</span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr><tr style='height:15.75pt'><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:15.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Andreas Schierwagen</span><o:p></o:p></p></td><td style='padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm;height:15.75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Leipzig University</span><o:p></o:p></p></td></tr></table><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><strong><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>For signing up to the Workshop please use the registration form found at <u><a href="http://bit.ly/1dkuBgR"><span style='font-weight:normal'>http://bit.ly/1dkuBgR</span></a></u></span></strong><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><strong><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";font-weight:normal'>You need to sign up before January 28<sup>th</sup>.</span></strong><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><strong><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";font-weight:normal'>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> </span></strong><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='mso-fareast-language:SV'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='mso-fareast-language:SV'>******************************************</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='mso-fareast-language:SV'>Anders Lansner</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='mso-fareast-language:SV'>Professor in Computer Science, Computational biology</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='mso-fareast-language:SV'>School of Computer Science and Communication</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='mso-fareast-language:SV'>Stockholm University and Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-fareast-language:SV'><a href="mailto:ala@kth.se">ala@kth.se</a>, +46-70-2166122</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-language:SV'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-language:SV'><hr size=1 width="99%" noshade style='color:#909090' align=center></span></div><table class=MsoNormalTable border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 style='border-collapse:collapse'><tr><td style='padding:0cm 11.25pt 0cm 6.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-language:SV'><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></span></p></td><td style='padding:.75pt .75pt .75pt ..75pt'><p><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#3D4D5A'>Detta epostmeddelande innehåller inget virus eller annan skadlig kod för <a href="http://www.avast.com/">avast! Antivirus</a> är aktivt. <o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr></table><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-language:SV'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></blockquote><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-language:SV'><br><br><o:p></o:p></span></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: 517-353-4388<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Fax: 517-432-1061<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></div>
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