Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!mcnc!unc-c!dya
From: dya@unc-c.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.rumor
Subject: Re: A Quick Question - (nf)
Message-ID: <1455@unc-c.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 28-Jun-84 15:46:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: unc-c.1455
Posted: Thu Jun 28 15:46:37 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 30-Jun-84 07:00:51 EDT
Lines: 20

References: cepu.294


>The problem here is that people don't remember text they remember information

    Whoever said that the human brain was binary, or representational, or
anything else.  I think that even cepu!scw ( a neurologist ? ) would have
to concede that some sort of behavioural "engine" might trade off sheer numbers
of bits for speed.  If you're looking for high speed data acquisition, don't
ask human neurological tissue to carry it; isn't it extremely slow ?

    Aside from exhausting the subject, I think that the question that "How
many Crays does a human brain emulate, or how many 6665AL20's does it take
to store a brain's worth of information" is quite meaningless.  We understand
very little (but are making rapid advances) about the brain at the cellular
level.  It's like Carl Sagan's estimate of other planets like ours, or trying
to use an Atari 400 to do oil well modeling.  The information is so poor that
the results are truly meaningless.

-dya-