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From: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu (Stephen Smoliar)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Limits of AI
Summary: Edelman substantiates Sagan
Keywords: Intelligence, Neural Darwinism
Message-ID: <6655@venera.isi.edu>
Date: 31 Oct 88 15:17:14 GMT
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In article <5221@watdcsu.waterloo.edu> smann@watdcsu.waterloo.edu (Shannon
Mann - I.S.er) writes:
>
>Now consider the argument posed by Dr. Carl Sagan in ch. 2, Genes and 
>Brains, of the book _The Dragons of Eden_.  He argues that, at about the 
>level of a reptile, the amount of information held within the brain
>equals that of the amount of information held within the genes.  After 
>reptiles, the amount of information held within the brain exceeds that
>of the genes.
>
>Now, of the second argument, we can draw a parallel to the question asked.
>Lets rephrase the question:
>
>Can a system containing X amount of information, create a system containing
>Y amount of information, where Y exceeds X?  
>
>As Dr. Sagan has presented in his book, the answer is a definitive _YES_.
>
Readers interested is a more technical substantiation of Sagan's arguments
should probably refer to the recent work of Gerald Edelman, published most
extensively in his book NEURAL DARWINISM.  The title refers to the idea that
"mind" is essentially a result of a selective process among a vast (I am
tempted to put on a Sagan accent, but it doesn't come across in print)
population of connections between neurons.  However, before even considering
the selective process, one has to worry about how that population came to be
in the first place.  I quote from a review of NEURAL DARWINISM which I
recently submitted to ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE:

	This population is an EPIGENETIC result of prenatal development.
	In other words, the neural structure (and, for that matter, the
	entire morphology) of an organism is not exclusively determined
	by its genetic repertoire.  Instead, events EXTERNAL to strictly
	genetic activity contribute ot the develo9pment of a diverse
	population of neural structures.  Specific molecular agents,
	known as ADHESION MOLECULES, are responsible for determining
	the course of a morphology and, consequentlty, the resulting
	pattern of neural cells which are formed in the course of that
	morphology;  and these molecules are responsible for the formation,
	during embryonic development, of the population from which selection
	will take place.

Those who wish to pursue this matter further and are not inclined to wade
through the almost 400 pages of NEURAL DARWINISM will find an excellent
introduction to the approach in the final chapter of Israel Rosenfield's
THE INVENTION OF MEMORY.  (This remark is also directed to Dave Peru, who
requested further information about Edelman.)