The brain is a hierarchical computing device consisting of hundreds of functional areas, each of which represents explicitly a different type of information. My laboratory has used system identification methods to recover these maps from functional MRI (fMRI) data in humans. This voxel-wise modeling approach can also be used to decode brain activity with unprecedented accuracy. Finally, we have also developed a new generative modeling approach (called PrAGMATiC) that describes individual variability in map structure, and which predicts functional maps for new subjects. This information could be used as the basis for new computing architectures that represent information using principles similar to those of the human brain.