Chris Eliasmith is the current Director of the Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience at the University of Waterloo, and is a Professor of Philosophy and Systems Design Engineering. Chris works on understanding how the brain processes information through reverse engineering and simulating the human brain using his large scale brain model called SPAUN, which is now able to perform many impressive perceptual, motor and cognitive tasks at human-level performance. He has also written a book ‘How to Build a Brain’, in which he writes about his approach to understanding the brain and explores all of the concepts and details in SPAUN.
TIMESTAMPS
(00:49) – Most beautiful aspect of the brain
(03:50) – Reverse engineering the brain
(08:43) – SPAUN
(22:56) – Building SPAUN
(38:14) – Thoughts and consciousness
(42:49) – Artificial intelligence
(47:36) – Other large scale brain models
(51:57) – What attracted Chris to theoretical neuroscience
(56:22) – How to get involved in building a brain
(1:01:02) – Neuromorphic computing
(1:08:51) – Grand unified theories of the brain
(1:16:17) – Neuralink
(1:20:09) – Is Chris just another SPAUN?
(1:21:44) – Advice for young scientists
