054. Jay McClelland: Networks That Learn

Lessons from his youth, where he moved around the world as a child and interacted with different religions and backgrounds, which helped him understand that we are shaped by our contexts and experiences.

His entry into cognitive psychology, and going beyond the laws of behavior into: Why do people behave the way they do?

Building neural networks to model cognition.

His world-changing PDP paper (Parallel Distributed Processing: Explorations in the Microstructure of Cognition), a paper that was published in 1986 and transformed this whole field, and directly led to more and more people embracing the connectionist model and neural networks.

The fact and meaning of bi-directionality in neural networks. What does it mean that information can flow both ways in the same network structure?

Generative models, and in this context, OpenAI's DALL-E 2 algorithm, which can create amazing illustrations and artworks — and should we credit generative or creative algorithms with artistry and give them credit for their art?

Consciousness — does it extend beyond humans and is it something that we may be able to find someday in algorithms?