Symposia

Brains, Minds and Machines

Brains, Minds and Machines


Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - Thursday, May 5, 2011
Kresge Auditorium, 48 Massachusetts Avenue


To view these videos with their searchable interactive transcript, visit the MIT Infinite History website.

Welcome

  • David A. Mindell PhD '96, Chair, MIT150 Steering Committee; Frances and David Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing; Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics; Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow; Head, Program in Science, Technology, and Society, MIT
  • Marc A. Kastner, Donner Professor of Science; Dean, MIT School of Science
  • Tomaso A. Poggio, Eugene McDermott Professor in the Brain Sciences, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; Founding Member, McGovern Institute for Brain Research; Principal Investigator, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory; Co-Director, Center for Biological and Computational Learning, MIT

Keynote Panel — The Golden Age — A Look at the Original Roots of Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science, and Neuroscience

Moderator: Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor, Department of Psychology, Harvard University

  • Panel: Emilio Bizzi, Institute Professor, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; Founding Member, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT
  • Sydney Brenner, Senior Distinguished Fellow, Crick-Jacobs Center, Salk Institute for Biological Studies
  • Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor, Emeritus, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT
  • Marvin Minsky, Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, Emeritus, MIT
  • Barbara H. Partee PhD '65, Distinguished University Professor Emerita of Linguistics and Philosophy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
  • Patrick H. Winston '65 SM '67 PhD '70, Ford Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science, MIT; Principal Investigator, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory; Chairman and Co-Founder, Ascent Technology, Inc.

Vision and Action

  • Moderator: Tomaso A. Poggio, Eugene McDermott Professor in the Brain Sciences, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; Founding Member, McGovern Institute for Brain Research; Principal Investigator, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory; Co-Director, Center for Biological and Computational Learning, MIT
  • Panel: Rodney L. Brooks, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Technology Officer, Heartland Robotics, Inc.; Panasonic Professor of Robotics, Emeritus, MIT
  • Takeo Kanade, U.A. and Helen Whitaker University Professor of Computer Science and Robotics, The Robotics Institute; Director, Quality of Life Technology Engineering Research Center, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Amnon Shashua PhD '93, Co-Founder, Mobileye; Sachs Professor of Computer Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  • Matthew A. Wilson, Sherman Fairchild Professor of Neuroscience; Picower Scholar; Associate Head for Education, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT

Language and Thought

  • Moderator: Irene R. Heim, Professor of Linguistics; Head, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT
  • Panelists: Susan Carey, Henry A. Morss, Jr. and Elizabeth W. Morss Professor of Psychology; Chair, Department of Psychology, Harvard University
  • Gennaro Chierchia, Haas Foundations Professor of Linguistics; Chair, Department of Linguistics, Harvard University
  • Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor, Department of Psychology, Harvard University
  • Patrick H. Winston '65 SM '67 PhD '70, Ford Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science, MIT; Principal Investigator, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory; Chairman and Co-Founder, Ascent Technology, Inc. 

Social Cognition and Collective Intelligence

  • Moderator: Thomas W. Malone, Patrick J. McGovern Professor of Management, MIT Sloan School of Management; Founding Director, Center for Collective Intelligence, MIT
  • Panel: Andrew W. Lo, Harris & Harris Group Professor of Finance, MIT Sloan School of Management; Director, Laboratory for Financial Engineering, MIT
  • Martin A. Nowak, Professor of Biology and Mathematics; Director, Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, Harvard University
  • Alexander (Sandy) Pentland PhD '82, Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences; Director, Media Lab Entrepreneurship Program, MIT
  • Rebecca Saxe PhD '03, Fred and Carole Middleton Assistant Professor, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT

Keynote Panel — Why is it Time to Try Again? A Look to the Future

  • Moderators: Tomaso A. Poggio, Eugene McDermott Professor in the Brain Sciences, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; Founding Member, McGovern Institute for Brain Research; Principal Investigator, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory; Co-Director, Center for Biological and Computational Learning, MIT
  • Joshua B. Tenenbaum PhD '99, Paul E. Newton Career Development Professor of Cognitive Science and Computation, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT; Principal Investigator, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
  • Panel: Robert Desimone, Doris and Don Berkey Professor of Neuroscience, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; Director, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT
  • Jeff Hawkins, Co-Founder, Numenta; Founder, Redwood Neuroscience Institute
  • Susan Hockfield, President and Professor of Neuroscience, MIT
  • Christof Koch, Lois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology, California Institute of Technology; Chief Scientific Officer, Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA
  • Peter Norvig, Director of Research, Google, Inc.
  • Phillip A. Sharp, Institute Professor, David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, MIT
  • Shimon Ullman PhD '77, Samy and Ruth Cohn Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science

Nature and Nurture

  • Moderator: Nancy Kanwisher '80 PhD '86, Walter A. Rosenblith Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; Investigator, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT
  • Panel: Terrence Sejnowski, Francis Crick Chair, Salk Institute for Biological Studies; Professor of Biology and Co-Director, Institute for Neural Computation, University of California, San Diego; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  • Elizabeth S. Spelke, Marshall L. Berkman Professor of Psychology; Director, Laboratory for Developmental Studies, Harvard University
  • Mriganka Sur, Paul E. Newton Professor of Neuroscience; Head, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; Director, Simons Initiative on Autism and the Brain, MIT
  • Joshua B. Tenenbaum PhD '99, Paul E. Newton Career Development Professor of Cognitive Science and Computation, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT; Principal Investigator, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

Consciousness and Intelligence

  • Moderator:Shimon Ullman PhD '77, Samy and Ruth Cohn Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science
  • Panel:Ned Block '64, Silver Professor of Philosophy, Psychology, and Neural Science, Department of Philosophy, New York University
  • Christof Koch, Lois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology, California Institute of Technology; Chief Scientific Officer, Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA
  • 
Giulio Tononi, David P. White Chair in Sleep Medicine; Distinguished Chair in Consciousness Science; School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin, Madison

The Marketplace for Intelligence

  • Moderators: Haym Hirsh, Professor of Computer Science, Rutgers University; Visiting Scholar, Center for Collective Intelligence and Sloan School of Management, MIT
  • Tomaso A. Poggio, Eugene McDermott Professor in the Brain Sciences, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; Founding Member, McGovern Institute for Brain Research; Principal Investigator, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory; Co-Director, Center for Biological and Computational Learning
  • Pane: Andrew Blake, Managing Director, Microsoft Research, Cambridge, UK
  • David A. Ferrucci, Senior Manager, Lead Researcher, and Principal Investigator, Watson/Jeopardy! Project, T.J. Watson Research Center, IBM
  • Demis Hassabis, Wellcome Trust Research Fellow, Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, University College, London, UK
  • Vikash K. Mansinghka '05 MEng '09 PhD '09, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Navia Systems
  • Peter Norvig, Director of Research, Google, Inc.
  • Jacob (Kobi) Richter, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Technology Officer, Medinol, Ltd.
  • Amnon Shashua PhD '93, Co-Founder, Mobileye; Sachs Professor of Computer Science, School of Engineering and Computer Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Closing Remarks

  • Joshua B. Tenenbaum PhD '99, Paul E. Newton Career Development Professor of Cognitive Science and Computation, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT; Principal Investigator, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

This symposium was inspired by the old dream of understanding the mind and the brain, which was at the core of several new fields created at MIT during the ‘50s and ‘60s. The same dream is now the main motivation for a new Intelligence Initiative (I2). Beyond being a great intellectual mission, this research helps to develop an understanding of the origins of intelligence, build more intelligent artifacts and systems, and improve the mechanisms for collective decisions. These advances will be critical to the future prosperity, education, health, and security of our society.

Key question: Over the past 50 years, research in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) has led to the current development of remarkably successful applications such as Deep Blue, Google search, Kinect, Shazam, Watson, and MobilEye. While each of these systems performs at human level or better in a narrow domain, none can be said to be intelligent. The main theses of the panels were:

a) that a new effort in curiosity-driven research is needed in order to understand intelligence and the brain

b) that this new basic research endeavor should tightly combine computer science, cognitive science, neuroscience, and social sciences, and

c) that it should also integrate different facets of intelligence such as vision, planning, language, and social intelligence.

The Brains, Minds, and Machines events ran over three days, with panel talks involving personalities from academia and industry. The symposium started with a keynote panel discussing the “Golden Age” — the original roots of Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, and Linguistics. The panels over the following two days spanned several areas of intelligence research—Vision, Language, Action and Navigation, and Social Cognition. The panels discussed the role of "nature and nurture" in the development of intelligence and the interaction between the problems of consciousness and intelligence. The second day of the program closed with a keynote panel discussion: "Why Is It Time to Try Again? A Look to the Future”, which focused on future efforts to integrate neuroscience, cognitive science, and computer science in a new attempt towards understanding and replicating the mind. The final panel of the symposium, "The Marketplace for Intelligence", provided a glimpse into the marketplace for the science and engineering of intelligence.

Faculty leads
  • Irene R. Heim, Professor and Head of the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT
  • Tomaso A. Poggio, Eugene McDermott Professor in the Brain Sciences, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT
  • Joshua B. Tenenbaum PhD '99, Paul E. Newton Career Development Professor of Cognitive Science and Computation, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT
; Principal Investigator, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

Organized by MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Department of Linguistics and Philosophy.

Read more about this symposium in the news:

MIT News

Tuesday, May 3, 2011


Registration and refreshments

 MIT room 26-100
4 – 4:45 pm

Welcome


4:45 – 5 pm

  • David A. Mindell PhD '96, Chair, MIT150 Steering Committee; Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing and of Aeronautics and Astronautics; Head, Program in Science, Technology, and Society, MIT
  • 
Marc A. Kastner, Donner Professor of Science; Dean, MIT School of Science
  • Tomaso A. Poggio, Eugene McDermott Professor in the Brain Sciences; Founding Member, McGovern Institute for Brain Research; Principal Investigator, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory; Co-director, Center for Biological and Computational Learning, MIT (speaking on behalf of symposium organizers: I. Heim, J. Tenenbaum, and T. Poggio)
 

Keynote Panel
5 – 7 pm

The Golden Age — A Look at the Original Roots of Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science, and Neuroscience
   
  • Emilio Bizzi, MIT Institute Professor; Founding Member, McGovern Institute for Brain Research
  • Sydney Brenner, Senior Distinguished Fellow, Crick-Jacobs Center, Salk Institute
 for Biological Studies
  • Noam Chomsky, MIT Institute Professor, Emeritus; Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
  • Marvin Minsky, Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, Emeritus, MIT

  • Barbara H. Partee PhD '65, Distinguished University Professor Emerita of Linguistics and Philosophy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst


  • Patrick H. Winston '65 SM '67 PhD '70, Ford Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science, MIT
; Principal Investigator, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory; Chairman and Co-founder, Ascent Technology

Moderator: Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor, Department of Psychology, Harvard University

Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Continental breakfast and registration
Kresge Auditorium, MIT
8 – 9 am

Vision and Action 

9 – 10:30 am

  • Rodney L. Brooks, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Technology Officer, Heartland Robotics, Inc.; Panasonic Professor of Robotics, Emeritus, MIT
  • Takeo Kanade, U.A. and Helen Whitaker University Professor, The Robotics Institute; Director, Quality of Life Technology Engineering Research Center, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Amnon Shashua PhD '93, Co-founder, Mobileye; Sachs Professor of Computer Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

  • Matthew A. Wilson, Sherman Fairchild Professor of Neuroscience; Picower Scholar; Associate Head for Education, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT
  

Moderator: Tomaso A. Poggio, MIT
10:30 – 10:55 am

Break



Language and Thought
11 am – 12:30 pm

  • Susan Carey, Henry A. Morss, Jr. and Elizabeth W. Morss Professor of Psychology; Chair, Department of Psychology, Harvard University

  • 

Gennaro Chierchia, Haas Foundations Professor of Linguistics and Chair, Department of Linguistics, Harvard University

  • Steven Pinker, Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor, Department of Psychology, Harvard University
  • 
Patrick H. Winston '65 SM '67 PhD '70, Ford Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science, MIT

; Principal Investigator, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory; Chairman and Co-founder, Ascent Technology

Moderator: Irene R. Heim, Professor and Head, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT

Lunch





Kresge Oval
12:30 – 2 pm

Social Cognition and Collective Intelligence
Kresge Auditorium, MIT
2 – 3:30 pm

  • Andrew W. Lo, Harris & Harris Group Professor; Director, Laboratory for Financial Engineering, MIT
  • Martin A. Nowak, Professor of Biology and Mathematics; Director, Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, Harvard University
  • Alexander (Sandy) Pentland PhD '82, Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences; Director, Human Dynamics Laboratory; Director, Media Lab Entrepreneurship Program, MIT
  • 
Rebecca Saxe PhD '03, Fred and Carole Middleton Assistant Professor, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT



Moderator: Thomas Malone, Patrick J. McGovern Professor of Management, Sloan School of Management; Director, Center for Collective Intelligence, MIT

Keynote Panel

MIT room 10-250
5:30 – 7:30 pm

Why Is It Time to Try Again? A Look to the Future  



  • Robert Desimone, Doris and Don Berkey Professor of Neuroscience, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; Director, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT

  • Jeff Hawkins, Co-founder, Numenta; Founder, Redwood Neuroscience Institute 

  • Susan Hockfield, President and Professor of Neuroscience, MIT


  • Christof Koch, Lois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology, California Institute of Technology; Chief Scientific Officer, Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA
  • Peter Norvig, Director of Research, Google, Inc.
  • Phillip A. Sharp, MIT Institute Professor, David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
  • Shimon Ullman PhD '77, Samy and Ruth Cohn Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute
 of Science

Moderators: Tomaso A. Poggio and Joshua B. Tenenbaum, MIT

Reception

Hosted by the McGovern Institute for Brain Research

MIT Building 46
Third-floor atrium
7:30 pm

Thursday May 5, 2011
Continental breakfast and registration


Kresge Auditorium, MIT
8 – 9 am 

Nature and Nurture

9 –10:30 am

  • Terrence Sejnowski, Francis Crick Chair, Salk Institute for Biological Studies; Professor of Biology and Co-director, Institute for Neural Computation, University of California, San Diego; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  • Elizabeth S. Spelke, Marshall L. Berkman Professor of Psychology, Harvard University
  • Mriganka Sur, Paul E. Newton Professor of Neuroscience; Head, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; Director, Simons Initiative on Autism and the Brain, MIT
  • Joshua B. Tenenbaum PhD '99, Paul E. Newton Career Development Professor of Cognitive Science and Computation, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT
; Principal Investigator, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

Moderator: Nancy Kanwisher '80 PhD '86, Walter A. Rosenblith Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT; Investigator, McGovern Institute for Brain Research

Break



10:30 am – 10:55 am

Consciousness and Intelligence

11 am – 12:15 pm

  • Ned Block '64, Silver Professor of Philosophy, Psychology, and Neural Science, Department of Philosophy, New York University
  • Christof Koch, Lois and Victor Troendle Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology, California Institute of Technology; Chief Scientific Officer, Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA
  • 
Giulio Tononi, David P. White Chair in Sleep Medicine; Distinguished Chair in Consciousness Science; School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Moderator: Shimon Ullman PhD '77, Samy and Ruth Cohn Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science

Lunch

Kresge Oval
12:15 – 1:30 pm

The Marketplace for Intelligence

1:30 pm – 4 pm

  • Andrew Blake, Managing Director, Microsoft Research, Cambridge
, UK
  • David Ferrucci, Senior Manager, Lead Researcher, and Principal Investigator, Watson/Jeopardy! Project, T.J. Watson Research Center
, IBM
  • Demis Hassabis, Research Fellow, Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, University College, London, UK; Founder, Deepmind Technologies
  • Vikash Mansinghka '05 MEng '09 PhD '09, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Navia Systems

  • Peter Norvig, Director of Research, Google
, Inc.
  • 
Jacob (Kobi) Richter, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Technology Officer, Medinol, Ltd.
  • Amnon Shashua PhD '93, Co-founder, Mobileye; Sachs Professor of Computer Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Moderators: Haym Hirsh, Professor of Computer Science, Rutgers University; Visiting Scholar, Center for Collective Intelligence and Sloan School of Management, MIT; and Tomaso A. Poggio, MIT

Closing remarks

4 – 4:15 pm

  • Joshua B. Tenenbaum PhD '99, Paul E. Newton Career Development Professor of Cognitive Science and Computation, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT
; Principal Investigator, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (speaking on behalf of the symposium organizers, I. Heim, T. Poggio, and J. Tenenbaum)

Economics and Finance: From Theory to Practice to Policy

Conquering Cancer through the Convergence of Science and Engineering

Leaders in Science and Engineering: The Women of MIT

Computation and the Transformation of Practically Everything

Earth, Air, Ocean and Space: The Future of Exploration

Brains, Minds and Machines