#222 – Jay McClelland: Neural Networks and the Emergence of Cognition

Jay McClelland is a cognitive scientist at Stanford. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
– Paperspace: https://gradient.run/lex to get $15 credit
– Skiff: https://skiff.org/lex to get early access
– Uprising Food: https://uprisingfood.com/lex to get $10 off 1st starter bundle
– Four Sigmatic: https://foursigmatic.com/lex and use code LexPod to get up to 60% off
– Onnit: https://lexfridman.com/onnit to get up to 10% off

EPISODE LINKS:
Jay’s Website: https://stanford.edu/~jlmcc/

PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8
RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/
YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman
YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips

SUPPORT & CONNECT:
– Check out the sponsors above, it’s the best way to support this podcast
– Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman
– Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman
– Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman
– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman
– Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman
– Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman

OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(07:12) – Beauty in neural networks
(11:31) – Darwin and evolution
(17:16) – The origin of intelligence
(23:58) – Explorations in cognition
(30:02) – Learning representations by back-propagating errors
(36:27) – Dave Rumelhart and cognitive modeling
(49:30) – Connectionism
(1:12:23) – Geoffrey Hinton
(1:14:19) – Learning in a neural network
(1:31:11) – Mathematics & reality
(1:38:19) – Modeling intelligence
(1:48:57) – Noam Chomsky and linguistic cognition
(2:03:18) – Advice for young people
(2:14:26) – Psychiatry and exploring the mind
(2:27:04) – Legacy
(2:32:53) – Meaning of life