The Ersatz Brain Project: A Brain-Like Computer Architecture for Cognition

The Ersatz Brain Project develops programming techniques and software applications for a brain-like computing system. Its brain-like hardware architecture design is based on a select set of ideas taken from the anatomy of mammalian neo-cortex. In common with other such attempts it is based on a massively parallel, two-dimensional array of CPUs and their associated memory. The design used in this project: 1) Uses an approximation to cortical computation called the network of networks which holds that the basic computing unit in the cortex is not a single neuron but groups of neurons working together in attractor networks; 2) Assumes connections and data representations in cortex are sparse; 3) Makes extensive use of local lateral connections and topographic data representations, and 4) Scales in a natural way from small groups of neurons to the entire cortical regions. The resulting system computes effectively using techniques such as local data movement, sparse data representation, sparse connectivity, temporal coincidence, and the formation of discrete “module assemblies.” The authors discuss recent neuroscience in relation to their physiological assumptions and a set of experiments displaying what appear to be “concept-like” ensemble based cells in human cortex.