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From: shebs@utah-cs.UUCP (Stanley Shebs)
Newsgroups: net.ai
Subject: Re: "Rational Psychology"
Message-ID: <2003@utah-cs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 13-Oct-83 17:39:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: utah-cs.2003
Posted: Thu Oct 13 17:39:27 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 24-Oct-83 22:50:53 EDT
References: <12279@sri-arpa.UUCP> rocheste.3352
Lines: 15

I'm always suspicious of trying to reach general conclusions by studying
the detailed low-level behavior of the human brain.  It's not quite the
same thing as learning about a 780 by studying its individual transistors,
rather it's like trying to characterize computability by studying a specific
brand of computer.  You'll have a hard time distinguishing between what is
*possible* and what is an accident of design or evolution.  It seems to me
that the brain uses neurons with certain characteristics not because they're
particularly good, but because early primates had them, and so on ad infinitum.

>From the standpoint of universal psychology, it's more interesting to find
out human brains *can't* do, and why, and what AI programs can and can't do,
and why...

							stan the l.h.
							utah-cs!shebs