Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!trwacs!erwin
From: erwin@trwacs.UUCP (Harry Erwin)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: how many distinct thoughts can a person have?
Message-ID: <316@trwacs.UUCP>
Date: 21 Jun 91 17:56:14 GMT
References: <1991Jun19.033316.18773@athena.mit.edu> <1991Jun20.083708.13355@tygra.Michigan.COM>
Distribution: usa
Organization: TRW Systems Division, Fairfax VA
Lines: 27

dave@tygra.Michigan.COM (David Conrad) writes:

>>...previous article...
>I think the argument would rest on the analog, as opposed to digital, nature
>of the brain.  Since the potential across a synapse when it fires can be at
>any value, i.e. it is not quantized, then one could make use of the
>uncountably infinitely many real numbers between any two points on the
>number line.  The question is, is our intelligence dependant on the analog
>nature of the brain, or can it be simulated on a finite state machine?
>This question has sparked much debate, as you might well imagine.

Judy Dayhoff (U. Md) is looking at this issue. Based on some similar
things that I've seen in multiprocessing systems, I suspect the
instantaneous state of the brain is sensitive to _when_ individual
synapses fire, so my personal belief is that the analog nature of
the brain is an important component of intelligence. No proof, tho.
Bernardo Huberman has been involved in some research that seems to
indicate that chaotic processes are particularly efficient at
pattern recognition (via rapid phase-locking), which may be why
Paul Rapp has seen chaos in brainwaves. Sander van der Leeuw was
interested in my point that a deterministic system controlled by
a chaotic pattern detector is chaotic as a whole. That is a good
description of the way many cultures operate. 
-- 
Harry Erwin
Internet: erwin@trwacs.fp.trw.com