Mike Davies

Intel Labs · Functionalist

Mike Davies argues, in the functionalist tradition, that the computational principles of biological intelligence, including sparse, asynchronous, event-driven processing and local synaptic learning rules, can be implemented in silicon and that doing so is both practically useful and theoretically instructive. He does not claim that Loihi 2 is a conscious system. His position is that neuromorphic hardware faithfully implements the algorithmic level of neural computation, and that the efficiency gains over rate-coded networks are evidence that the algorithmic level is where the interesting features of intelligence reside.

That position carries a specific implication for consciousness research: if what matters for consciousness is the temporal pattern of spiking activity rather than the biological substrate that generates it, then a chip that can reproduce those patterns, including the diverse firing modes that LIF neurons cannot express, is a genuine experimental tool for consciousness science. Loihi 2’s programmable neuron microcode, which allows researchers to run Izhikevich or Resonate-and-Fire dynamics alongside LIF dynamics on the same hardware, is the feature that makes this argument empirically testable rather than merely theoretical.

The challenge Davies’s work has not resolved is the one Guido Piccinini raises from the biological naturalist side: that producing the right temporal signatures in silicon may not be sufficient if consciousness depends on the specific physical processes of biological neurons. Davies’s research programme does not take a position on that question, and the Loihi 2 architecture paper (Orchard, Frady, Davies et al., arXiv:2304.01210) is explicit that the chip is a research tool for studying neural computation rather than a system designed to satisfy consciousness criteria. That honesty about scope is the reason his work is useful as a reference point for substrate independence debates rather than a resolution of them.

Known for. Directing Intel's Neuromorphic Computing Lab and co-developing the Loihi and Loihi 2 neuromorphic research processors

Coverage on this site

Every researcher covered on this site is indexed in the directory of consciousness researchers, grouped by the position their published work defends. The positions themselves are set out in the index of consciousness theories.