Re: [ontolog-forum] FW: FW: Looking to the Future of Data Science - NYTi

[Steven Ericsson-Zenith <steven@xxxxxxx>]

One is tempted to pull out the childish "I told you so" banner. That they should be reviewing computational and data processing architecture to the exclusion of a review of the physics involved highlights the unforgivable bias in the project.

Steven

On Thu, Sep 4, 2014 at 4:36 AM, John Bottoms <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Ed, et al,

An op-ed by Yves Frégnac and Giles Laurent ran in the current issue of Nature, on the European Human Brain Project. Funds in the amount of $1B was allocated for the project. The authors make several points:
· "...the project is turning into an expensive database-management project with a hunt for new computing architectures."
· "Many scientists also feared that the HBP would siphon funds from fundamental research. [however]...neuroscientists (ourselves included) joined up, even if they did not agree with all aspects of the HBP proposal..."
· "The board also announced plans to dissolve the cognitive-neuroscience sub-programme, leading to the resignation of that project's 18 principal investigators, including its director. Neuroscientists who initially supported the HBP feel that they have been taken advantage of.
· "The changes to the HBP are not only disingenuous, they are self-defeating. About €430 million (US$570 million) of the European Commission funding goes to the HBP's 'core team'.
·"Given the sizeable fraction of the HBP's core budget devoted to administration, we cannot feel assured that the HBP is managed cost-effectively or adapted for research operations across Europe."

The authors then list three possible remedies to address these problems.

Also of note is that "connectome" appears to be replacing "ontology" as the schema for thought."
If this is the European opportunity for a next generation information processing platform then we must wonder what the standing position of the U.S. will be. (IBM is a partner in this project.)

A link to the article:
 http://www.nature.com/news/neuroscience-where-is-the-brain-in-the-human-brain-project-1.15803

-John Bottoms
 FirstStar Systems
 Concord, MA USA

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