----- Original Message -----
From: "R C Macaulay" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
<snip>
Jones wrote,
The very best human brain is 'around' the equivalent
of 1-10 teraflops although admittedly this is an
impossible comparison to make valid- since the brain
is analog not digital.
Animal brains are neither "analog" or "digital"; they are a blend of both
and are non-algorithmic. Comparisons with algorithmic computers are
misleading at best. Arguably the salient property of brains is pattern
recognition, which is central to the perceptual systems; it is poorly done
by algoritmic machines. Penrose in his "Shadows of the Mind" pointed out
that there are problems which human minds can solve which have no
*algorithmic* solutions. Neurones can have hundreds of synapses connecting
other neurones. The synapses are binary in their action but the threshold is
influenced by many 'analog' factors including the chemical environment. The
possible number of patterns of activated neurones is beyond "astronomical"
in number. I think it very adventurous to state what this entitiy can or
cannot do; this is perhaps the interface between 'science' and 'religion'.
IBM is building a massively parallel computer to emulate an anatomical
feature of the neocortex. We may find that it cannot be "programmed" but it
can "learn" -- and we know how predictable[?] is the outcome of teaching a
human child.
Mike Carrell
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