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From: fantom@wam.umd.edu (Thomas Mark Swiss)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,sci.bio,sci.psychology,alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: The Bandwidth of the Brain
Message-ID: <1990Dec27.062852.24750@wam.umd.edu>
Date: 27 Dec 90 06:28:52 GMT
References: <37034@cup.portal.com> <1990Dec22.213121.12226@dsd.es.com> <1990Dec23.023456.21126@watcgl.waterloo.edu>
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Reply-To: fantom@wam.umd.edu (Thomas Mark Swiss)
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In article <1990Dec23.023456.21126@watcgl.waterloo.edu> jwtlai@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Jim W Lai) writes:
>In article <1990Dec22.213121.12226@dsd.es.com> ddebry%bambam@es.com writes:
>>	So then, given enough time, could finitely large number of
>>pocket calculators (any models) all networked together somehow ever
>>figure out how each of them work to the point that they could
>>fabricate one of themselves?  I think not.
>>
>>	I'd like to suggest the answer even holds when you put 'human'
>>into the question.  We're too involved in the problem to figure it
>
>Actually, this hypothesis makes the assumption on the level of abstraction
>required to make a simulation of oneself.  What constitutes sufficient
>understanding in this regard is debatable.  The requirements for
>simulation are less stringent than fabrication.
     
     It ooccurs to me that one neads very little knowledge of how the brain 
works to even do fabrication. I can make a copy of a circuit by examining the
componants and the connection between, without ANY understanding of the circuit
or its parts. "Let's see, I connect this thing with the red,black,green and goldstripes to the middle lead from this black box..."

      A lot of what the brain does is made of simple steps connected in ways 
more complex than necessary...no one grades evolution on neatness.

================================================================================
Tom Swiss                  | "You put a baby in a crib with an apple and a  
fantom@wam.umd.edu         |rabbit. If it eats the rabbit and plays with the
"If at first you don't     |apple, I'll buy you a new car."-Harvey Diamond
succeed, change the rules."|       Keep your laws off of my brain!