Silicon Brains

European scientists are building silicon chips containing large scale artificial neural networks (200,000 neurons and 50 million synapses, scalable to a billion neurons and 10 to the 13 synapses).  (Thanks to Neal Anderson for the link.) IBM scientists and working on “cognitive computing”, an attempt to build a new generation of …

Wolfram Alpha

Stephen Wolfram, of New Kind of Science and Mathematica fame, is scheduled to make public a new tool next May.  Wolfram Alpha is supposed to answer a vast number of questions in natural language by computing the answers from a large set of algorithms and databases.  Sounds impressive.  (Thanks to …

Metaphysics of Consciousness Conference at Edimburgh

THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH Royal Institute of Philosophy The Metaphysics of Consciousness A Conference in Honour of T.L.S. Sprigge (1932–2007) Edinburgh, 7–9 July 2009 What is consciousness? What is its place in the physical universe? How did it arise in the course of cosmic evolution? Can there be a genuine …

Metaphysics of Mind Conference at Edimburgh

THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH Postgraduate Conference The Metaphysics of Mind Keynote speaker: Professor Jaegwon Kim (Brown University) Edinburgh, 6 July 2009 CALL FOR PAPERS Papers are invited from postgraduate students on any aspect of the metaphysics of mind, e.g. psychophysical reduction, multiple realization, the explanatory gap, physicalism and emergentism, mental …

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