Xref: utzoo comp.ai:8223 sci.bio:4169 sci.psychology:3878 alt.cyberpunk:5344 Path: utzoo!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!nntp-server.caltech.edu!erich From: erich@near.cs.caltech.edu (Erich Schneider) Newsgroups: comp.ai,sci.bio,sci.psychology,alt.cyberpunk Subject: Re: The Bandwidth of the Brain Message-ID: Date: 18 Dec 90 15:28:45 GMT References: <37034@cup.portal.com> Sender: news@nntp-server.caltech.edu Organization: California Institute of Technology Lines: 22 In-Reply-To: mmm@cup.portal.com's message of 18 Dec 90 07:02:23 GMT Nntp-Posting-Host: near.cs.caltech.edu I heartily suggest you go read Winograd and Flores' _Understanding Computers and Cognition_, published by Ablex Publishing Corp. (ISBN 0-89391-050-3). It might open you to some new views on some (I think) common misconceptions: 1) That the purpose of language is to explicitly transmit information. 2) That "thinking" is about the brain modeling a "real world". 3) That decisions are made by formulating alternatives, assigning benefits to the results of actions, and selecting the best alternative as a result. Sure, computers can do algorithmic processes really fast. Sure, they've got a really high bandwidth. _Human brains don't work like computers._ And that's the problem. We've given the AI paradigm 50 years and a lot of grant money. What have they given us back? Let's go on to something new and useful. -- erich@tybalt.caltech.edu or try erich@through.caltech.edu "The Hierophant is Disguised and Confused."