Brain-inspired computing: We need a master plan
This addresses the challenge of scaling brain-inspired computing for practical applications, but is incremental as it builds on existing ideas without new experimental results.
The paper argues that brain-inspired computing technologies offer potential for extreme energy efficiency and handling unstructured data, but require a coordinated master plan involving funding and community support to realize this promise.
New computing technologies inspired by the brain promise fundamentally different ways to process information with extreme energy efficiency and the ability to handle the avalanche of unstructured and noisy data that we are generating at an ever-increasing rate. To realise this promise requires a brave and coordinated plan to bring together disparate research communities and to provide them with the funding, focus and support needed. We have done this in the past with digital technologies; we are in the process of doing it with quantum technologies; can we now do it for brain-inspired computing?