NEUROMORPHIC ENGINEERING

Charles François (2004). NEUROMORPHIC ENGINEERING, International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics, 2(2): 2283.

Collection	International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics
Year	2004
Vol. (num.)	2(2)
ID	◀ 2283 ▶
Object type	Discipline oriented

A new technology aiming at creating chips modelled in accordance with brain structures (Economist, sept.22, 2001, p. 24)

Neuromorphic engineers construct devices that contain elements functionally equivalent to neurons , axons and even “a primitive rendition of brain chemistry”(p. 24)

These devices are analog machines , not digital ones, and their output is a behavior , not a logical calculus.

The Economist's reviewer writes: “What neuromorphic engineering seeks to do is to build tools that think for themselves- making decisions the way humans do”

Besides this somewhat anthropomorphic way to express the idea, the reviewer adds: “…the neuromorphic approach may be the only way of achieving the (elusive) goal to build efficient ”adaptive intelligent control systems …“

It would rather seem that this technique is leading to active and autonomous self-organizing electronic systems

The subject is closely related to so-called artificial life .

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See also