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From: randall@alberta.UUCP (Allan F Randall)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.neural-nets
Subject: Re: Contest to rename non-neural "Neural Networks"
Message-ID: <180@cavell.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 15-Oct-87 21:15:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: cavell.180
Posted: Thu Oct 15 21:15:38 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 17-Oct-87 18:03:11 EDT
References: <4210@well.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
Lines: 26
Keywords: neurobiology, retina, distributed, plastic
Summary: a continuum from neural nets to PDP nets



From: wcalvin@well.UUCP (William Calvin)
 [contest for a term for neural-like networks]

I'd say stick with Connectionist Nets or PDP Nets or some other commonly
used term. Why create yet another new term to confuse things even more?

 < But most so-called "neural networks" in AI don't even
 < have the ambition to simulate a real neural circuit:  ...
 
  But they do have the ambition of simulating what is computationally
significant about real neural circuits, and thus they are part of the
study of real neural networks.
  On the other hand, if we consider PDP nets to be a general type of 
network of which neural nets are an example, then neural nets would be 
part of the study of PDP nets. I guess this just depends on whether you
call neural nets a type of PDP net, or PDP nets an abstraction from
neural nets.
  Also, isn't there a continuum between these two extremes, depending on
how much abstraction you do from actual physiology? Since you insist
that PDP nets not be called 'neural networks', where do you draw the line?

Allan Randall
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta