Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!uunet!mnemosyne.cs.du.edu!mercury.cair.du.edu!diana.cair.du.edu!ttoupin From: ttoupin@diana.cair.du.edu (Tory Toupin) Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy Subject: Re: Dreams(Garbage collection) Message-ID: <1991Mar27.162850.4397@mercury.cair.du.edu> Date: 27 Mar 91 16:28:50 GMT Article-I.D.: mercury.1991Mar27.162850.4397 References: <1991Mar25.114410.45892@vaxb.acs.unt.edu> Sender: news@mercury.cair.du.edu (netnews) Organization: University of Denver Lines: 38 In article schraudo@beowulf.ucsd.edu (Nici Schraudolph) writes: >munawar@vaxb.acs.unt.edu writes: > >>I was wondering whether dreams are our brain's method of >>garbage collection(like done with computer memory) >>Has anybody done any research in to it? > >Crick & Mitchison have speculated that the function of dream sleep might be >to remove parasitic modes -- "false memories" that occur in some neural net >architectures under heavy storage loads. The idea is that in REM sleep the >brain "runs" in reverse, _unlearning_ from experience. Since there's no >sensory input, experiences in REM sleep (ie. dreams) are dominated by the >parasitic modes. How about this: the brain is attempting to piece together memories to for temporary concepts -- a form of forethought? That is to say, memories are symbols of the state of the body when the memory was formed, and the brain tends to superimpose(?) these symbols (I suppose it chooses symbols to put together by a correlation of states -- a similar "smell", a similar "image") and see if they are physically possible situations based on the knowledge of situations which can/have occurred by trying these memories out on the "virtual body" (i.e.: the so-called mind's eye, but the entire body as well) and if it is not physically possible, it mutates the symbols slightly so that they are not associated as well with one another. [If this is not clear, it is because I have only begun to write this stuff down. If anyone cares to comment (critically, abusively, whatever :), it would be most apreciated.] -- Tory S. Toupin | ttoupin@diana.cair.du.edu | Existence toward perfection... Unversity of Denver | Life of mediocrity. Undergraduate: Math & Computer Sciences| Denver, CO 80208 | -Tory Toupin ----- C'est ne pas un fichier de <<.signature>>