Why Biology Can and Silicon Can’t? The Brain and the Computer

Datum

11.07.2013

Zeit

15:00 - 16:00

Sprecher

Professor Valeriu Beiu

Serie

cfaed Seminar Series

Sprache

en

Hauptthema

Elektro- u. Informationstechnik

Andere Themen

Biologie, Chemie, Informatik, Elektro- u. Informationstechnik

Host

Sandra Bley, cfaed

Beschreibung

This presentation aims to follow on the steps of von Neumann’s prescient "The Computer and the Brain" (Yale Univ. Press, 1958), and to clarify common misconceptions about the Brain. The tale will be reversed, i.e., we shall start from the Brain, and rely heavily on the latest results, for trying to foresee the future of computing. We will shed some light on the nano-devices used by the Brain, and also on how we could decipher its intricate architectures for information processing. These will require covering quite some ground, parts of which are as yet not well understood/explored, hence implicitly charting directions for research─both for the computing as well as for the VLSI/nanotechnology communities.

We will start from the gated ion channels, and go on to argue about the different ways they "communicate." Revealing the statistical (collective) behaviors of arrays of gated ion channels for communications will follow. For computations, we shall make the case for interleaving arrays of diverse gated ion channels. In support of these we will detail preliminary but interesting results on the high reliability achievable by such arrays. Touching upon the ultra low (but reasonably constant) power consumption of the Brain, we will stress very clearly the crucial role the ion pumps are playing here. Glial cells (e.g., astrocytes) and synapses (the gaps between neurons) will be only very briefly mentioned, before delving into the optimal hierarchical organization of the Brain, emphasizing the columnar structures, which can be seen as cyclic circuits (i.e., with feedback) having very large fan-ins.

Finally, from the information conveyed we will draw parallels between the Brain and our present-day computers, which will expose the main reasons why our current approaches are falling short of doing what the Brain does, and will conclude with a call to arms for the computing, nano, and VLSI communities.

Links

• http://tu-dresden.de/veranstaltungen/termin?id=TUD51403831a8fed

Letztmalig verändert: 11.07.2013, 09:41:06