Brains and Machines

300Mb of soul

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Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind, by V S Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee

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Launch of The Neuromorphic Engineer

This blog is being moved to: http://explaining-the-future.org and http://sunnybains.com

Most of the posts are going along, but not this one as it's a bit redundant now and not really of historical interest. It will disappear at some point!

 

One of the many things that have kept me from my blog in the last month or two has been working on a new progression of a newsletter I edit called The Neuromorphic Engineer. The new format is is more accessible, searchable, and generally usable, plus it allows for different kinds of content including blog posts. I've put a few of my own posts up as well as all the old newsletter archives, and there will be new content every 2-4 weeks.

If you're interested in how people are trying to build technology that emulates the neural systems of various animals (particularly, but not exclusively, using analog technology) then check this out. In general the articles are more technical than my blog, but less technical than journal papers. I'd really like to hear what you think and any suggestions you may have.

Radio Lab

This blog is being moved to: http://explaining-the-future.org and http://sunnybains.com

Most of the posts are going along, but not this one as it's a bit redundant now and not really of historical interest. It will disappear at some point!

 

I've always been addicted to radio, but I haven't usually been that impressed by science programming. In my experience it tends to be too news, business, and application based, with not enough about the ideas. However, I've become addicted to Radio Lab since I heard it plugged on my other favorite US radio show, This American Life.

Decided it was worth mentioning here because I started to realize how many of the shows have been somehow related to the brain and perception. Listening to Christof Koch talk about how the claustrum may help synchronize neural activity (in the episode on Emergence) in particular made me want to share.

The show's a little odd. In many ways it feels like it's more aimed at teenagers than adults. But the ideas it discusses are often sophisticated and thought provoking, and even with subjects I'm familiar with, I've usually come out learning something new. Great for those of us who have a long commute!

The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, by Ray Kurzweil

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Talking Robots

This blog is being moved to: http://explaining-the-future.org and http://sunnybains.com 

Most of the posts are going along, but not this one as it's a bit redundant now and not really of historical interest. It will disappear at some point!

 

I just came back from a technical visit to Switzerland where I had the opportunity to visit many different labs relating to machine intelligence, micro and nanofabrication, and optoelectronics. I even got to visit my first synchotron. As a result, of course, I'm completely backed up and have had no time to post. Will try to get my act together next week.

In the meantime, you may be interested in listening to a relatively new podcast called Talking Robots from Dario Floreano at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at EPFL, one of the places I visited. Floreano's lab was very impressive in its own right: I hope to report on it soon, either here or for another publication. But the podcast is very cool too. Among those interviewed who have impressed me in the past are Rod Brooks (who I've blogged recently), Barbara Webb, and Luc Steels. There are also lots of people I've only vaguely heard of or don't know, so it should be educational for me too.

Hope you enjoy it... do let me know if not. I've only just started to listen.

Being There: Putting Brain, Body, and the World Together Again, by Andy Clark

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On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins

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Books on Brains and Machines

A reader suggested that it would be useful to build up a resource of reviews of books related to the stuff that we discuss here at Brains and Machines. Rather than keep those reviews here, it seems to make sense to give them a blog of their own. This will allow for easier categorization both by subject and by rating. However, I'll post a notice of the reviews (which I expect to post monthly or so) here as well, so you don't need to subscribe to both feeds.

The first book I've reviewed is something I read when I was doing my research for the Wired article: Seeing Voices by Oliver Sacks. The book looks at deaf history and culture, and talks about the link between language and intellectual development and the differences between spoken and visual languages. I hope you find the review useful.

Also, do feel free to get in touch with suggestions for other books that I should be reading and/or reviewing... Just keep them to the general area of brains and machines and no pseudoscience please!