Visiting Speaker: L. Andrew Coward
A Systems Architecture Approach to the
Brain: From Neurons to Consciousness
Speaker: L. Andrew Coward, Department of Computer Science, Australian
National University
When: 03.00PM, Mon 13 Mar 2006
Venue: 78-420
Host: Janet Wiles
Abstract:
It can be demonstrated on system theoretical grounds that any system
which learns to perform many behavioural features with limited
information handling resources is constrained within a set of bounds
called the recommendation architecture by the requirement to find a
compromise between the need to conserve physical information
handling resources and the need to learn without severe interference
with earlier learning. Overall architecture, the definition of
modules and components, and even device algorithms are all
constrained, with the severity of the constraints increasing as the
ratio of features to resources increases. Algorithms widely used in
artificial neural networks cannot be used in some major subsystems
of the recommendation architecture. There are strong resemblances
between the physical forms of a system within the recommendation
architecture bounds and the physiology of the human brain including
separations between and functions of the cortex, hippocampus,
thalamus, basal ganglia, cerebellum, hypothalamus and amygdala; the
internal organization of the cortex into layers, columns and areas;
and the topology and synaptic algorithms of neurons. Detailed
psychological observations of a wide range of cognitive phenomena,
including semantic, episodic, working and procedural memory;
processes such as arithmetic; the deficits resulting from physical
damage; and sleep with dreaming can be modelled in a physiologically
plausible manner by a system within the recommendation architecture
bounds. Learning can be bootstrapped from experience with minimal
and plausible a priori information. Many phenomena labelled
"conscious" can be modelled in terms of physiology. Electronic
systems within the recommendation architecture bounds confirm the
capabilities of the architecture and point the way to implementation
of systems with human like cognitive capabilities.
Lecture from 3-4 pm followed by informal discussion/coffee at the
University Staff Club from 4pm to 5pm.
Biography:
Andrew was employed by Nortel Networks as a system designer and
architect in the design of extremely complex real time control
telecommunications systems from 1969 to 1999, and participated in
successful projects to design and introduce commercially successful
state of the art systems with up to 20 million lines of code and
custom integrated circuit based hardware. While still employed as a
system architect, he wrote a book on understanding the brain as a
system, introducing a novel cognitive architecture. He subsequently
obtained a US patent for system architectures which can learn to
manage a complex telecommunications network based on the cognitive
architecture. Since 1999 he has been full time in academic research
into cognitive systems, most recently as a research fellow at the
Australian National University.
His new book, "A Systems Architecture Approach to the Brain: from
Neurons to Consciousness", was published December 12th 2005 and will
be introduced at this seminar.
Contact:
Janet Wiles, seminar host (j.wiles@itee.uq.edu.au) or Guido Governatori,
ITEE seminar co-ordinator, (guido@itee.uq.edu.au) ITEE seminar web page:
http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~seminar
Speaker: L. Andrew Coward, Department of Computer Science, Australian
National University
When: 03.00PM, Mon 13 Mar 2006
Venue: 78-420
Host: Janet Wiles
Abstract:
It can be demonstrated on system theoretical grounds that any system
which learns to perform many behavioural features with limited
information handling resources is constrained within a set of bounds
called the recommendation architecture by the requirement to find a
compromise between the need to conserve physical information
handling resources and the need to learn without severe interference
with earlier learning. Overall architecture, the definition of
modules and components, and even device algorithms are all
constrained, with the severity of the constraints increasing as the
ratio of features to resources increases. Algorithms widely used in
artificial neural networks cannot be used in some major subsystems
of the recommendation architecture. There are strong resemblances
between the physical forms of a system within the recommendation
architecture bounds and the physiology of the human brain including
separations between and functions of the cortex, hippocampus,
thalamus, basal ganglia, cerebellum, hypothalamus and amygdala; the
internal organization of the cortex into layers, columns and areas;
and the topology and synaptic algorithms of neurons. Detailed
psychological observations of a wide range of cognitive phenomena,
including semantic, episodic, working and procedural memory;
processes such as arithmetic; the deficits resulting from physical
damage; and sleep with dreaming can be modelled in a physiologically
plausible manner by a system within the recommendation architecture
bounds. Learning can be bootstrapped from experience with minimal
and plausible a priori information. Many phenomena labelled
"conscious" can be modelled in terms of physiology. Electronic
systems within the recommendation architecture bounds confirm the
capabilities of the architecture and point the way to implementation
of systems with human like cognitive capabilities.
Lecture from 3-4 pm followed by informal discussion/coffee at the
University Staff Club from 4pm to 5pm.
Biography:
Andrew was employed by Nortel Networks as a system designer and
architect in the design of extremely complex real time control
telecommunications systems from 1969 to 1999, and participated in
successful projects to design and introduce commercially successful
state of the art systems with up to 20 million lines of code and
custom integrated circuit based hardware. While still employed as a
system architect, he wrote a book on understanding the brain as a
system, introducing a novel cognitive architecture. He subsequently
obtained a US patent for system architectures which can learn to
manage a complex telecommunications network based on the cognitive
architecture. Since 1999 he has been full time in academic research
into cognitive systems, most recently as a research fellow at the
Australian National University.
His new book, "A Systems Architecture Approach to the Brain: from
Neurons to Consciousness", was published December 12th 2005 and will
be introduced at this seminar.
Contact:
Janet Wiles, seminar host (j.wiles@itee.uq.edu.au) or Guido Governatori,
ITEE seminar co-ordinator, (guido@itee.uq.edu.au) ITEE seminar web page:
http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~seminar
