Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!lll-winken!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!dan-hankins
From: dan-hankins@cup.portal.com (Daniel B Hankins)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Simulation and Understanding (was Re: Simulation verus real
Message-ID: <17471@cup.portal.com>
Date: 22 Apr 89 06:54:41 GMT
References: <827@htsa.uucp> <5790@watdcsu.waterloo.edu> <5106@cs.Buffalo.EDU> <1259@rpi.edu> <5254@cs.Buffalo.EDU> <17191@cup.portal.com> <975@itivax.iti.org> <8021@venera.isi.edu>
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In article <8021@venera.isi.edu> smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu (Stephen Smoliar)
writes:

>Actually, the Neural Darwinism thesis of Gerald Edelman is slightly
>different; but it also assumes that infants definitely have more than a
>blank slate.  [...] an infant is actually "over-wired" with far more
>neural connections than it actually needs.  Those connections which
>actually embody the acquisition of experience arise as a result of
>competitive selection.  [...] Perhaps, rather than simulating the infant,
>we should begin by simulating that developmental process!

     Sounds good.  Perhaps we should go one step further and make the
construction of the ANN somewhat dependent on a kind of computational
DNA... then create populations of these and let them evolve in a simulated
environment.


Dan Hankins