A Neuroscience Perspective of Natural and Artificial Intelligence

This seminar course examines the emergence of life and mind in the universe to understand Natural Intelligence as the essential antecedent of Artificial Intelligence.  The goal is to provide a neuroscience perspective of AI and specifically to critically examine the question concerning whether machines can ever become self-aware.  This seminar course addresses the big questions related to the emergence of life, and mind in the context of physical law.   This includes consideration of the physical predicates of life and mind with emphasis on the central role of entropy and information in abiogenesis, the formation of life from non-living matter.   Mechanisms of signal transduction, intracellular signaling, and stimulus-response coupling in unicellular organisms will show how these processes provide a highly conserved basis for the cognitive behavioral innovations of multicellular organisms.  The origin of the vertebrates and the evolution of the vertebrate nervous system leading to the mammalian neocortex will be discussed in detail as the prelude to the evolution of the Hominins and the Hominin brain.  Cortical innovations that led to higher-order thinking, and meta-awareness as the foundation of modern human consciousness will then be explored.    Theories of human consciousness and the creativity that derives from the power of abstract thinking will be examined as the foundation of human collective intelligence that has led to the existence of a global network of human superintelligence.  With this background, the history and nature of AI with special attention to neural networks will be considered in detail as we reflect on the irony that we neither know how the brain makes the mind nor how neural networks accomplish their impressive achievements.