Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!maytag!watdcsu!ssingh
From: ssingh@watdcsu.waterloo.edu ( SINGH S    - INDEPENDENT STUDIES    )
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Simulation verus reality
Message-ID: <5797@watdcsu.waterloo.edu>
Date: 10 Apr 89 00:18:01 GMT
References: <827@htsa.uucp> <5790@watdcsu.waterloo.edu> <5106@cs.Buffalo.EDU> <5791@watdcsu.waterloo.edu> <5125@cs.Buffalo.EDU>
Reply-To: ssingh@watdcsu.waterloo.edu ( SINGH S    - INDEPENDENT STUDIES    )
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 31

In article <5125@cs.Buffalo.EDU> lammens@sunybcs.UUCP (Jo Lammens) writes:
>
>I think not even all connectionists would agree with your last
>sentence. What I was really hinting at before is that a description at
>the neural level *MAY* be too low to yield significant understanding,
>even though it is tempting and certainly fascinating. It's a bit like
>trying to understand how an operating system works by analyzing the
>function of all the transistors in the machine it's running on. They
>can be modeled more or less precisely, and for sure tons of them can
>do some amazing things. But I doubt that this kind of analysis will
>yield any significant understanding. Please convince me of the
>opposite.
>
You analogy seems correct, but what alternative is there? We could
study simple brains, but we lose the idea of "emergence." There is 
not all THAT much difference between our brain and a monkey's. Why
are we so much more complex??? You could use automata with 
local communications properties that you define yourself and
run a simulation, but these are pure abstractions; there does
not seem to be a hope of physically realizing it, just as it was
not possible to physically create Von Neumann's self-reproducing
automaton machine. BY THE WAY, THE WORLD IS DISCRETE, NOT
CONTINUOUS (in response to past postings). Now, about the operating
system parallel. To me, it is more important to study the structure
of the computer running the operating system we call a MIND. How
does a neuron react to stimuli, how does it connect to others, how
does it change itself? If you want to lift the "algorithms of
thought" from a mind and transplant it elsewhere, GOOD LUCK.
What do you mean when you say "...any significant understanding?"

ssingh@watdscu.waterloo.edu ... a mind forever voyaging ...