Israel Pollak Distinguished Lecture Series – Lecture 1

Spiking intelligence

Spikes and rhythms organize control and communication in the animal world, in contrast to the bits and clocks of digital technology. The invention of the digital computer in 1950 put an end to the short-lived cybernetics dream to develop a common language for animal and machine intelligence. Ever since then, machine intelligence has focused on computation with digits, from the first computer to the latest generative chatbot. The limitations of this digital intelligence are now in clear sight, starting with the unsustainable carbon footprint of digital technology. The most promising solution to date is the emerging spiking technology of neuromorphic engineering, initially envisioned by Carver Mead in 1990. The talk will describe the current advances and challenges of building spiking intelligent machines, through a control perspective that in many ways can be regarded as a renaissance of the cybernetics dream.