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From: marty1@houdi.UUCP (M.BRILLIANT)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.neural-nets
Subject: Re: Contest to rename non-neural "Neural Networks"
Message-ID: <1378@houdi.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 15-Oct-87 11:20:57 EDT
Article-I.D.: houdi.1378
Posted: Thu Oct 15 11:20:57 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 17-Oct-87 08:53:10 EDT
References: <4210@well.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel
Lines: 32
Keywords: neurobiology, retina, distributed, plastic
Summary: Adaptive networks, not plastic

In article <4210@well.UUCP>, wcalvin@well.UUCP (William Calvin) writes:
>  
> ....  most so-called "neural networks" in AI don't even
> have the ambition to simulate a real neural circuit:  they are seeking
> shortcuts around formal programming, a plastic network that can be shaped
> up by training until it performs a desired task (and then perhaps cloned). 
> ....
>  
>   So how about a contest to devise a new name for this wonderful new field
> that will give it an identify respectful of, but independent from, the
> endeavors concerning real neural nets?  Some possibilities:
>        Pseudo-neural networks        
>        Neuroid networks        
>        Neural-like networks        
>        Plastic networks        
>        Parallel Distributed Nets        
>        Cellular Networks        
>        Dry Nets 

Not plastic.  Plastic is something like polyurethane, polyester,
polystyrene, or polyvinyl chloride.  Though those networks must be
poly- something, because they have to have lots of components.

But the unique feature of these networks is that they are adaptive:
they acquire capabilities that depend on how they are used after they
are built.  So I think they should be called

	Adaptive Networks

M. B. Brilliant					Marty
AT&T-BL HO 3D-520	(201)-949-1858
Holmdel, NJ 07733	ihnp4!houdi!marty1