Observing the brain

Before we briefly delve into this notorious comparison, it is important for us to clarify here that it is indeed just a comparison, and not a parallel. We do not propose that neural networks work exactly in the manner that our brains do, as this would not only anger quite a few neuroscientists, but also does no justice to the engineering marvel represented by the anatomy of the mammalian brain. This comparison, however, helps us to better understand the workflow by which we may design systems that are capable of picking up relevant patterns from data. The versatility of the human brain, be it in making musical orchestras, art masterpieces, or pioneering scientific machinery such as the Large Hydron Collider, shows how the same architecture is capable of learning and applying highly complex and specialized knowledge to great feats. It turns out that nature is a pretty smart cookie, and hence we can learn a lot of valuable lessons by just observing how it has gone about implementing something so novel as a learning agent.