Re: [agi] news bit: Is this a unified theory of the brain? Do Bayesian statistics rule the brain?
This week's New Scientist has a fascinating article on a possible 'grand theory' of the brain that suggests that virtually all brain functions can be modelled with insert fashionable technique here But seriously, I use bayes rule on an industrial scale in robotics software. There is always a tendency though to view the brain in terms of what currently happens to be the fashionable paradigm, whether that's clockwork, gravitation or bayesian statistics. --- agi Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: http://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244id_secret=103754539-40ed26 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
Re: [agi] news bit: Is this a unified theory of the brain? Do Bayesian statistics rule the brain?
Quotes like this make me shake my head: Friston’s results have earned praise for bringing together so many disparate strands of neuroscience. “It is quite certainly the most advanced conceptual framework regarding an application of these ideas to brain function in general,” says Wennekers. Marsel Mesulam, a cognitive neurologist from Northwestern University in Chicago, adds: “Friston’s work is pivotal. It resonates entirely with the sort of model that I would like to see emerge.” It is pretty funny to see neuroscientists congratulate themselves for inventing something that was already known in literature that they apparently don't read. Friston's most advanced conceptual framework has been around since at least the early 1990s in theoretical computer science and expressly considered in the context of AI and cognitive function. I was personally using predictive error math to reverse engineer neural structure function almost ten years ago (which sounds more useful than it actually is -- that is not the hard part). However, I will grant that nobody was really paying attention to that area of math at the time. And the biology guys have the nerve to say the computer scientists do not pay enough attention to neuroanatomy research. :-) Silly monkeys. J. Andrew Rogers --- agi Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: http://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244id_secret=103754539-40ed26 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
Re: [agi] news bit: Is this a unified theory of the brain? Do Bayesian statistics rule the brain?
Ben Goertzel wrote: This stuff is important, but has been around in the literature for years now... On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 6:59 AM, David Hart [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: From http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2008/05/do_bayesian_statisti.html This week's New Scientist has a fascinating article on a possible 'grand theory' of the brain that suggests that virtually all brain functions can be modelled with Bayesian statistics. The link (above) is a blog copy of the article in New Scientist. Actually it is not important. I think this passage sums it up fairly well: Despite these successes, some in the Bayesian brain camp aren’t buying the grand theory just yet. They say it is hard to know whether Friston’s results are ground-breaking or just repackaged old concepts - but they don’t say he’s wrong. Others say the free-energy principle is not falsifiable. “I do not think it is testable, and I am pretty sure it does not tell you how to build a machine which emulates some aspect of intelligence,” says theoretical neuroscientist Tomaso Poggio of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For all that the *hype* it to make it sound like it works at higher levels of cognition, it does not. Richard Loosemore --- agi Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: http://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244id_secret=103754539-40ed26 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
Re: [agi] news bit: Is this a unified theory of the brain? Do Bayesian statistics rule the brain?
Thanks. It would be nice to have an explanation of Friston's claims, e.g: Meanwhile, Friston claims that the free-energy principle also gives plausible explanations for other important features of the cortex. These include adaptation effects, in which neurons stop firing after prolonged exposure to a stimulus like a rattling fan, so after a while you don't hear it. It also explains other phenomena: patterns of mirror-neuron activation that reflect the brain's responses to watching someone else make a movement; basic communication patterns between neurons that might underlie how we think; and even the hierarchical anatomy of the cortex itself. David H: From http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2008/05/do_bayesian_statisti.html This week's New Scientist has a fascinating article on a possible 'grand theory' of the brain that suggests that virtually all brain functions can be modelled with Bayesian statistics. The link (above) is a blog copy of the article in New Scientist. -dave -- agi | Archives | Modify Your Subscription --- agi Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: http://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244id_secret=103754539-40ed26 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
Re: [agi] news bit: Is this a unified theory of the brain? Do Bayesian statistics rule the brain?
This stuff is important, but has been around in the literature for years now... On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 6:59 AM, David Hart [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: From http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2008/05/do_bayesian_statisti.html This week's New Scientist has a fascinating article on a possible 'grand theory' of the brain that suggests that virtually all brain functions can be modelled with Bayesian statistics. The link (above) is a blog copy of the article in New Scientist. -dave agi | Archives | Modify Your Subscription -- Ben Goertzel, PhD CEO, Novamente LLC and Biomind LLC Director of Research, SIAI [EMAIL PROTECTED] If men cease to believe that they will one day become gods then they will surely become worms. -- Henry Miller --- agi Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: http://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244id_secret=103754539-40ed26 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
