Herbert Jaeger - Wanted: A Non-Turing Theory for the Long-Term Survival of Neuromorphic Computing

The term "computing" has a specific, well-defined, powerful, traditional meaning -- condensed in the paradigm of Turing computability (TC). A core aspect of TC is the perfectly reliable composition of perfectly identifiable symbolic tokens into complex, hierarchical symbolic structures. But all which is novel and promising and original in "neuromorphic" information processing leads away from such perfect symbolic compositionality. Apparently new formal conceptions of "computing" would be most welcome (and a new term for it, too). In this talk I will explain the principle of Turing computability for a non-CS audience, and then proceed to carve out a number of concrete examples of „computational" phenomena that separate neuromorphic information processing from Turing computability (and hence, from all known digital computing). Some of these items are classical topics in the philosophy of AI, others having more recently emerged from technological progress in non-digital hardware. I conclude with a proposal for a particular search direction for exploring a new kind of formal theory which might give the field of neuromorphic computing a unified foundation, similar in power and beauty to Turing computability in the field of digital computing. I will deliver this presentation twice within a short time, in slightly different renderings tailored for a „Zernike" and for a „Bernoulli" audience, respectively. The purpose is to assess whether there is resonance in FES for theory building as a core theme for CogniGron (and maybe beyond).