Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site utcsri.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsri!clarke From: clarke@utcsri.UUCP (Jim Clarke) Newsgroups: ut.general,ut.vlsi Subject: Re: SEMINAR ANNOUNCEMENT Message-ID: <3451@utcsri.UUCP> Date: Mon, 6-Oct-86 09:40:12 EDT Article-I.D.: utcsri.3451 Posted: Mon Oct 6 09:40:12 1986 Date-Received: Mon, 6-Oct-86 09:43:09 EDT References: <1899@utecfa.UUCP> Reply-To: clarke@utcsri.UUCP (Jim Clarke) Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto Lines: 49 Summary: In article <1899@utecfa.UUCP> jaro@utecfa.UUCP (Jaro A Pristupa) writes: >JOINT COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING SEMINAR > > VLSI MODELS OF NEURO-NETWORKS > by > Professor Carver Mead > California Institute of Technology > > Abstract > > .... The thesis of this discip- >line is that it is not possible, even in principle, to claim >a full understanding of a system unless one is able to build >one that functions properly. This principle is already well >accepted in molecular biology, and more recently in genet- >ics.... Without wishing to carp, and certainly without wanting to put anyone off what sounds like a Very interesting seminar (but maybe with a few sour grapes because I have to go to a Very uninteresting meeting at the same time), perhaps I could just point out that one of the systems we have learned to understand best in the twentieth century is the star. You know, one of those bright things in the sky. Very big, they are, actually, and tough to build. (You might think that an H-bomb would be a simulation. Unfortunately an H-bomb is not useful even for that. It demonstrates the basic mechanism of energy generation, but the scale is all wrong: mass too low, temperature too high.) OK, I know astrophysics isn't particularly close to neurophysiology. But that sounded like a Grand Principle back there. It isn't quite universal, but I couldn't properly go on without attending the seminar. In case you'd forgotten, here's the time of the seminar again: >DATE: Monday, October 6, 1986 >TIME: 4:00 p.m. >PLACE: GB244 > Galbraith Building > University of Toronto -- Jim Clarke -- Dept. of Computer Science, Univ. of Toronto, Canada M5S 1A4 (416) 978-4058 {allegra,cornell,decvax,linus,utzoo}!utcsri!clarke