de Garis/STARLAB Gets $Million Brain Building Grant
and Meets President of Brussels Government
In the first week that I was at STARLAB (early Feb 2000) I took part in writing up a research grant proposal to get money for brain building work at STARLAB. On Monday, 15th May, I heard officially that this grant was accepted, and to the tune of a million dollars (US) equivalent, over a third of the Brussels government's total budget for scientific research. The minister-president will come to STARLAB to present the grant (and discuss other matters).
This grant, plus the fact that Belgium has 2 of the 4 CBM's in the world (1 in Japan, 2 in Europe (Belgium) and 1 (soon) in the US) makes Belgium and hence Europe the undisputed world leader in brain building. This grant will solidify STARLAB's committment to brain building research and development in the near future. It will also help STARLAB's IPO value, when this private research company goes public in November 2000.
What will we do with the money? This is being discussed at the moment at STARLAB. There is another contract that is being negotiated right now (mid May 2000) that I am not at liberty yet to talk about in detail. It is MUCH bigger and might be combined somehow with this million dollar contract. Believe me, if this new contract comes through, and Im allowed to announce it, I will blast it on this web site. If it fails to come through, this paragraph will be quietly deleted. Since the appearance of the CBMs and my move back to the west, things have certainly heated up. Its exciting. All we have to do now is the minor matter of actually building the brain ;-) We will now have the financial resources and hence the manpower to really make a dent in how to architect an artificial brain, no easy task. Ive never pretended it will be easy.
Below is an email from my Starlab boss announcing a high honor.
Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 16:13:45 +0100
To: degaris@starlab.net
From: Walter De Brouwer
Subject: meeting with the president of Brussels
May 30, 9:00 am: meeting with the Minister-President of the Brussels
Region Mr. Simonet and his chief of Cabinet.
Topic of this meeting: research funding from Brussels region for the
experiment of Hugo de Garis, profiling Starlab (use of press), a tour in
the lab.Hugo explains the experiment. Walter DB, Walter VDV, Erik and I
will be present at the meeting too. Andrey cannot attend the meeting.
President of Brussels Government
Walter De Brouwer
CEO Starlab
Email : mailto:walt@starlab.net
Assistant : mailto:vandana@starlab.net
Website : http://www.starlab.org
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STARLAB RESEARCH
---A Place where 100 years means nothing------
WELCOME TO THE DEEP FUTURE (R)
Starlab is a private, blue-sky research laboratory in Brussels. It is
unique in the choice of its charter (the cross-fertilization between Bits,
Atoms, Neurons and Genes (BANG) and timeframe (the deep future). It is the
playground of seventy original scientists of 28 nationalities who believe
in the importance of basic research in a world which is in the grip of
speed and bottom lines.
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