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Expeditions: Mind in Vitro — Computing with Living Neurons

探险：体外思维 — 用活神经元进行计算

基本信息

批准号：
2123781
负责人：
Mattia Gazzola
金额：
$ 1500万
依托单位：
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Continuing Grant
财政年份：
2022
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2022-04-01 至 2029-03-31
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2123781&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Expeditions Mind Vitro Computing Living

项目摘要

Can computing systems be built out of living neurons? Can they achieve basic hallmarks of cognition such as learning, attention, curiosity, or creativity, so pervasive in biology yet elusive in modern computing? This Expedition imagines computers and robots that are human designed but living. That can be programmed, but whose behaviors are not specified, and instead, emerge. These systems will grow, heal, learn and explore. They will open a new space of possibilities yet to be imagined.By shifting from digital, rigid architectures to plastic cellular substrates, speed, accuracy, and exactness are traded off for statistical robustness, extreme parallelism, healing, growth, and superior energy efficiency. Rather than Boolean logic, these post-von Neumann systems will harness the compositional dynamics of billions of neural elements to generate 'out-of-the-box', emergent forms of computations. They will interface with muscles and sensors, to give rise to organic machines able to probe their environment and explore it. This technology will have profound, lasting impact in virtually every field related to information processing, robotics, health and medicine, with deep ramification across human knowledge. Modern deep-networks implemented on power-hungry supercomputers may be dwarfed by bio-computing systems the size of an apple and running on sugar. Neuroscience could be revolutionized, with radically new behavioral models. Ethics research will be catalyzed. The legacy will be the inception of an in-vitro third form of ‘intelligence’, separate from AI and animal.Building on recent advances in the engineering of multi-cellular constructs, insights into their dynamics via statistical physics, and guidance from information theory, this Expedition will develop the science and technology to fabricate, model, program, scale and embody biological processors. Research will unfold across four thrusts, structured around what makes a system compute and act: (1) Wetware – integrate neural cultures on engineered platforms; (2) Architecture – create a programmable substrate to support useful computations; (3) Programming – develop a software stack and a programming model to configure and run the substrate; (4) Robotic embodiment – demonstrate multi-sensory processing and probe the emergence of rudimentary cognitive traits in motile biological robots. A robust in-design ethics program will be pervasive of all aspects of research. The evocative power of this Expedition will excite students from all backgrounds and at all levels about computing. This will be leveraged to grow a Mind in Vitro community, through internships, workshops, seminars, and a dedicated mini-curriculum. Art-of-Science exhibitions in massive public spaces will allow us to connect with a broad and diverse audience. Finally, full commitment to open science is core, and protocols, software, hardware, and educational material will all be made freely available.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

计算机系统可以用活的神经元构建吗？它们能否达到认知的基本特征，如学习、注意力、好奇心或创造力，这些在生物学中如此普遍，但在现代计算机中却难以捉摸？这次探险设想了由人类设计但有生命的计算机和机器人。它可以被编程，但其行为没有被指定，而是出现。这些系统将成长、愈合、学习和探索。它们将打开一个充满未知可能性的新空间。通过从数字、刚性架构转向塑料细胞基板，速度、准确性和精确性被交换为统计稳健性、极端并行性、愈合、增长和卓越的能源效率。而不是布尔逻辑，这些后冯·诺伊曼系统将利用数十亿神经元素的组成动力学来生成“开箱即用”的紧急计算形式。它们将与肌肉和传感器相结合，从而产生能够探测和探索环境的有机机器。这项技术将对几乎所有与信息处理、机器人、健康和医学相关的领域产生深远而持久的影响，并对人类知识产生深远的影响。在耗电的超级计算机上实现的现代深度网络与苹果大小、以糖为燃料的生物计算系统相比可能相形见绌。神经科学可能会发生革命性的变化，产生全新的行为模型。伦理研究将得到催化。其遗产将是体外第三种形式的“智能”的开始，与人工智能和动物分开。基于多细胞结构工程的最新进展，通过统计物理学对其动力学的见解，以及信息理论的指导，这次探险将发展科学和技术来制造、建模、编程、扩展和体现生物处理器。研究将从四个方面展开，围绕如何使系统计算和行动展开：(1)湿软件——在工程平台上集成神经文化；(2)架构——创建一个可编程的基板来支持有用的计算；(3)编程-开发软件堆栈和编程模型，以配置和运行基板；(4)机器人的体现——展示多感官加工，探索移动生物机器人基本认知特征的出现。一个强大的设计伦理计划将在研究的各个方面普遍存在。这次探险的唤起力量将激发来自各种背景和各个层次的学生对计算机的兴趣。这将通过实习、讲习班、研讨会和专门的迷你课程来促进体外思维社区的发展。在大型公共空间举办的科学艺术展览将使我们能够与广泛而多样化的观众建立联系。最后，全面致力于开放科学是核心，协议、软件、硬件和教育材料都将免费提供。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。