Theoretically at least, this blog is oriented towards explaining the scientific ecosystem surrounding the DARPA SyNAPSE project. To date, however, we haven't clearly defined the origin and purpose of SyNAPSE. To fill the gap, I'm pleased to announce a new top-level page on Neurdon: About SyNAPSE.
This is a working document and will continue to evolve as the project proceeds. We hope it will be of use to both practitioners and newcomers to neuromorphic technology, though, so feedback is certainly welcome!
For your humble average computational neuroscientist scrapping for a PhD, there are scant moments of reflection about the big picture, the bally-hoo, the why-we-spend-time-on-the-what-we-spend-so-much-freaking-time-doing. This disease can grow especially acute for the computationalist, in so many ways removed from the thing he/she simulates. So, I'd like to take a trip back to 1972 for my benefit (and maybe yours), when Charlie Gross and his lab at Princeton accidentally stumbled on something new and exciting, about a brain area considered `off-limits' by some in the neuroscience establishment: inferotemporal cortex (IT, the thing I am currently embroiled in modeling). (Disclaimer: in case it wasn't obvious, given that I was born in 1984, this particular nugget was acquired second-hand).
Some time ago, a professor at a British university once told me that the introduction of yearly 50 pound "top-up" fees would corrupt education. He reasoned that if students could not completely concentrate on their work without undue influence, e.g. worrying about making money to pay for their education, how could they possibly engaged in the unbiased learning experience of the university? To American ears this sounds ridiculous. Some students accumulate hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, and this professor is worried about his students paying 50 pounds a year!