Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cbmvax!uunet!tdatirv!sarima
From: sarima@tdatirv.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: AI - the real problem
Message-ID: <174@tdatirv.UUCP>
Date: 14 Mar 91 00:57:41 GMT
References: <1485@ucl-cs.uucp> <schraudo.668710823@beowulf>
Reply-To: sarima@tdatirv.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Organization: Teradata Corp., Irvine
Lines: 32

In article <schraudo.668710823@beowulf> schraudo@beowulf.ucsd.edu (Nici Schraudolph) writes:
<G.Joly@cs.ucl.ac.uk (Gordon Joly) writes:
<I think such claims of redundancy in the brain -- ranging from lesion
<studies down to the infamous "you only use 10%" ads -- are premature;
<we simply don't know enough about brain function to make such a deter-
<mination.  Just because a person can still function normally with a
<lesion of A doesn't mean that A was redundant: the lesion may have pro-
<duced a defect that escaped our tests, or the function of A has been taken
<over by B, slightly compromising the function of B in the process, or...

You are making some very good points.  And indeed most recent work in
neurobiology tends to bear you 'guesses' out.  That is as we find out
more about brain function we are finding less and less 'redundancy'.

The reality seems to be a combination of the two alternatives you mentioned,
perhaps with a distinct bias towards the second (sometimes with more than
just a slight compromise in B's function; sometimes the function seems to
be taken over in part by B and C and D and ...)

<Even if the redundancy is there, it may be vital (as far as evolution is
<concerned) to compensate for the detrimental effects of concussions, micro-
<lesions, toxic substances, ageing, and the like.  We simply don't know
<how much slack there is for increasing brain functionality without in-
<creasing brain size.

Again, a very good point.  The human body is a wonder of self-correcting,
fail-safe, fault-tolerant operation.  I suspect that *any* redundancy that
actually is present is geared towards that end.  (This is certainly true
in such areas as tensile strength of bone &c.).
-- 
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uunet!tdatirv!sarima				(Stanley Friesen)