Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!usc!isi.edu!vaxa.isi.edu!smoliar From: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu (Stephen Smoliar) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: How much info can the brain hold? Message-ID: <15901@venera.isi.edu> Date: 4 Dec 90 21:50:40 GMT References: <7492@hub.ucsb.edu> <33870@netnews.upenn.edu> <15882@venera.isi.edu> <1984@abvax.UUCP> Sender: news@isi.edu Reply-To: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu (Stephen Smoliar) Organization: USC-Information Sciences Institute Lines: 36 In article <1984@abvax.UUCP> dmb@odin.icd.ab.com (David Babuder) writes: >In article <15882@venera.isi.edu> smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu (Stephen Smoliar) >writes: >> >>I would like to contest the assumption behind this calculation..... >> >> .... But inasmuch as >> there is always a trade-off between specificity and range in >> selective systems (see chapter 2), and because there is, in >>** general, no prior prefixed or coded relation between an animal's >>** behavior and objects and events in its present environment, it >> is not illuminating to talk of information (except A POSTERIORI, >> as an observer). It is equally fruitless to attempt to measure >> the capacity of such a system in information theoretical terms... >> >> >While I would support the conclusion that comparisons between the memory >of people, or animals, and of machines is difficult, I am confused >by the apparent statement that a set of behavior is not prefixed >or coded. Is this a misunderstanding of the statement above, a >lack of context, or a basic difference in psychological theory, since >it appears that a number of behaviors are prefixed or coded? The misunderstanding comes from your ignoring the word "prior" in the above passage. It is not that codes do not exist. It is that there is no reason to assume they exist prior to any behavior performed by an animal. ========================================================================= USPS: Stephen Smoliar 5000 Centinela Avenue #129 Los Angeles, California 90066 Internet: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu "It's only words . . . unless they're true."--David Mamet Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com