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From: lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Greg Lee)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Symbolic Connectionism? (was Re: What IS a symbol?)
Message-ID: <3896@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu>
Date: 3 May 89 20:29:13 GMT
References: <17877@cup.portal.com>
Organization: University of Hawaii
Lines: 33

From article <17877@cup.portal.com>, by dan-hankins@cup.portal.com (Daniel B Hankins):

" ...  In any case, we don't need to understand these organizations in great
" detail. ...
"      I understand that there is a lot of pre-built structure in places like
" the optical cortex, the auditory center and so on.  Is there a lot of this
" kind of specialization in the cerebrum?  Since its function appears to be
" to integrate the functioning of the other areas and produce meaningful
" action (i.e. it thinks), I would hazard a guess that it shows less of this
" kind of specialized topology than the other areas. ...

I would hazard an opposite guess, on the grounds that higher level
integrative functions have evolved later, and on the general
principle that evolution works by making use of present materials.
Thus one expects later evolved structures to depend on earlier
ones, at least in their fine level detail, and perhaps in their
overall form.

For instance, in phonetics one has [mb] replacing [nb] because
given some low-level details about the structure of the mouth,
the former is easier to say.  In turn, this has the consequnce
that the labiality is redundantly represented in two segments,
the [m] and the [b], making it possible for just one to act
as a sufficient perceptual cue in some circumstances, so that
the other may be lost.  There are grammatical assimilations
too -- verbs commonly agree with their subjects in languages
of the world.  Then, in such cases, pronominal subjects need
not be expressed, because there is sufficient information
in the verb.

But maybe it's just a coincidence.

		Greg, lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu