Selected Reflections on the World
Five myths about consciousness
Christof Koch describes five misunderstandings about consciousness, a concept that has inspired countless philosophical theories and much laboratory work over the past century.
To Keep Up with AI, We'll Need High-Tech Brains
Technologies that enhance the human brain will be essential to avoid a dystopian future fueled by the rise of artificial intelligence
How To Make a Consciousness Meter
Zapping the brain with magnetic pulses while measuring its electrical activity is proving to be a reliable way to detect consciousness.
How the Computer Beat the Go Master
As a leading go player falls to a machine, artificial intelligence takes a decisive step on the road to overtaking the natural variety.
The digital reconstruction of a slice of rat somatosensory cortex from the Blue Brain Project provides the most complete simulation of a piece of excitable brain matter to date. To place these efforts in context and highlight their strengths and limitations, we introduce a Biological Imitation Game, based on Alan Turing’s Imitation Game, that operationalizes the difference between real and simulated brains.
A Tribute to Oliver Sacks from Colleague and Friend Christof Koch
The famed neurologist–author found uniqueness in every patient and savored the miracle of existence, whether it be found in squirrel monkeys or people.
Tomaso Poggio and Christof Koch comment on the lack of our understanding of what constitutes human Intelligence and the need for a “science of intelligence.”
The movie Ex Machina prompts me to reflect upon the evolution of the idea of machine sentience over the past three decades of science fiction on film.