No one knows exactly how the brain works. Even the question of what is software in a computer is a little subtle. For example, is it a bunch of states of bits? Then it must be in the hardware. (Of course). Is it a divot in the reflective surface of disk? (Hardware again?) [I had to look up flash memory cards because I could not remember how EEPROMS worked. It turns out that I may have never learned how they worked until now.] But anyway, you should have gotten my point by now. Software exists as an electrical or mechanical state somewhere. Does that mean that I truly know how computers work. Could I write a program that usefully simulated or conveyed deep insights about how computers worked? No of course not. I would not know where to start. I could make something up and come up with some crude model but that is all it would be. But let's say that a master engineer in the business knew a great deal about how computers worked. Does that mean that he knows everything about software that there is to know? Of course not. If something like that were true then we would all be wasting our time talking to anyone other than top computer (hardware) engineers.
I know much less about how the brain works than I do about how computers work. Jim Bromer On Sat, Apr 4, 2015 at 3:33 PM, Benjamin Kapp <[email protected]> wrote: > > The software of the brain is the hardware. That is to say the neurons and > their firing and not firing and their connections between each other are the > software of the brain. The wiring diagram of the eye is relatively > predetermined as is that of the brain at least initially. For example normal > humans have a corpus callosum which is a bunch of neuron connections across > the two hemispheres. Without this humans seem to have two independent > brains. And so if we were to say look at this big connection between the two > hemispheres, it shouldn't be rebuffed "oh you are just looking at hardware > and can't make any determinations as to pre-wiring of the software".. because > that is exactly what the corpus callosum is, and more generally what the > gross anatomical regularities found across brains is. > > On Sat, Apr 4, 2015 at 2:57 PM, Jim Bromer <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> On Sat, Apr 4, 2015 at 2:45 PM, Benjamin Kapp <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> It seems to me that the brain is hard wired in certain ways. For example >>> the eye is considered part of the brain and its design is largely entirely >>> predetermined. And the brain as a whole as the same folds in the same >>> places across brains (on average), and not having such a design often leads >>> to abnormal mental function. In so far as the brain is a model for how to >>> go about creating AGI perhaps this stands as example that not everything >>> needs to be dynamically created by experience. >> >> >> >> That is not right. If you look at the hardware of a computer you would not >> be able to infer the dynamic relations (and the potential of the dynamic >> references and abstractions) of the software. (This is an old AI discussion >> group standard argument by the way,) So we cannot be sure exactly what the >> human brain is doing. (That's a I-don't-know-I only work here kind of >> argument.) >> >> >> >>> >>> >>> On Sat, Apr 4, 2015 at 2:39 PM, Jim Bromer <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>> I certainly don't mean that all structure has to be ad hoc. Some structure >>>> has to be implemented and there is no reason why default >>>> conceptualizations might be used, but in general the structure of a >>>> concept and the conceptual background that the concept is going to be >>>> applied to has to be learned. Just as I did not mean that all conceptual >>>> structure has to be ad hoc I also don't mean to suggest that all concepts >>>> can be acquired as individual objects. >>>> >>>> >>>> Jim Bromer ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-f452e424 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-58d57657 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
