The Self-Assembling Brain: How Neural Networks Grow Smarter

by Peter Robin Hiesinger Narrated by Joel Richards

Overview

How does a neural network become a brain? While neurobiologists investigate how nature accomplishes this feat, computer scientists interested in AI strive to achieve this through technology. The Self-Assembling Brain tells the stories of both fields, exploring the historical and modern approaches taken by the scientists pursuing answers to the quandary: What information is necessary to make an intelligent neural network?



As Peter Robin Hiesinger argues, "the information problem" underlies both fields. How does genetic information unfold during the process of human brain development-and is there a quicker path to creating human-level artificial intelligence? Is the biological brain just messy hardware, which scientists can improve upon by running learning algorithms on computers? Can AI bypass the evolutionary programming of "grown" networks? Hiesinger explores these tightly linked questions, highlighting the challenges facing scientists, their different disciplinary perspectives, and the common ground shared by those interested in the development of biological brains and AI systems. Hiesinger contends that the information content of biological and artificial neural networks must unfold in an algorithmic process requiring time and energy. There is no genome and no blueprint that depicts the final product. The self-assembling brain knows no shortcuts.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Hiesinger elegantly moves through a variety of topics, ranging from biological development to AI and ending with a discussion of the advances that deep neural networks have brought to the field of brain-machine interfaces."—-Kamila Maria Jóźwik, Science

"Hiesinger suggests that instead of looking at the brain from an endpoint perspective, we should study how information encoded in the genome is transformed to become the brain as we grow. . . . The Self-Assembling Brain is organized as a series of seminar presentations interspersed with discussions between a robotics engineer, a neuroscientist, a geneticist, and an AI researcher. The thought-provoking conversations help to understand the views and the holes of each field on topics related to the mind, the brain, intelligence, and AI."—-Ben Dickson, TechTalks

"

For anyone interested in the brain, or AI, or any of the myriad of branches and subbranches of each, I would highly recommend this!

"—-Jonathan Shock, Mathemafrica

Product Details

BN ID:	2940159841995
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	08/08/2023
Edition description:	Unabridged

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