#76 – John Hopfield: Physics View of the Mind and Neurobiology

About this episode

<p>John Hopfield is professor at Princeton, whose life&#8217;s work weaved beautifully through biology, chemistry, neuroscience, and physics. Most crucially, he saw the messy world of biology through the piercing eyes of a physicist. He is perhaps best known for his work on associate neural networks, now known as Hopfield networks that were one of the early ideas that catalyzed the development of the modern field of deep learning.</p> <p>EPISODE LINKS:<br /> Now What? article: <a href="http://bit.ly/3843LeU">http://bit.ly/3843LeU</a><br /> John wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hopfield">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hopfield</a><br /> Books mentioned:<br /> &#8211; Einstein&#8217;s Dreams: <a href="https://amzn.to/2PBa96X">https://amzn.to/2PBa96X</a><br /> &#8211; Mind is Flat: <a href="https://amzn.to/2I3YB84">https://amzn.to/2I3YB84</a></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast.</span>&#160;If you would like to get more information about this podcast go to <a href="https://lexfridman.com/ai">https://lexfridman.com/ai</a> or connect with @lexfridman on <a href="https://twitter.com/lexfridman">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman/">LinkedIn</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://medium.com/@lexfridman">Medium</a>, or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/lexfridman">YouTube</a> where you can watch the video versions of these conversations. If you enjoy the podcast, please rate it 5 stars on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/artificial-intelligence/id1434243584">Apple Podcasts</a>, follow on <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/2MAi0BvDc6GTFvKFPXnkCL">Spotify</a>, or support it on <a href="https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman">Patreon</a>.</p> <p>This episode is presented by Cash App. Download it (<a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cash-app/id711923939">App Store</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.squareup.cash&#38;hl=en_US">Google Play</a>), use code &#8220;LexPodcast&#8221;.&#160;</p> <p>Here&#8217;s the outline of the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.</p> <p>OUTLINE:<br /> 00:00 &#8211; Introduction<br /> 02:35 &#8211; Difference between biological and artificial neural networks<br /> 08:49 &#8211; Adaptation<br /> 13:45 &#8211; Physics view of the mind<br /> 23:03 &#8211; Hopfield networks and associative memory<br /> 35:22 &#8211; Boltzmann machines<br /> 37:29 &#8211; Learning<br /> 39:53 &#8211; Consciousness<br /> 48:45 &#8211; Attractor networks and dynamical systems<br /> 53:14 &#8211; How do we build intelligent systems?<br /> 57:11 &#8211; Deep thinking as the way to arrive at breakthroughs<br /> 59:12 &#8211; Brain-computer interfaces<br /> 1:06:10 &#8211; Mortality<br /> 1:08:12 &#8211; Meaning of life</p>