From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!utcsri!rpi!usc!sdd.hp.com!swrinde!network.ucsd.edu!noiro.acs.uci.edu!unogate!stgprao Thu Jul  9 16:20:12 EDT 1992
Article 6394 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!utcsri!rpi!usc!sdd.hp.com!swrinde!network.ucsd.edu!noiro.acs.uci.edu!unogate!stgprao
>From: stgprao@xing.unocal.com (Richard Ottolini)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Generalized Distributed Memory
Keywords: holonomy holography memory cerebellum
Message-ID: <1992Jun30.152821.10062@unocal.com>
Date: 30 Jun 92 15:28:21 GMT
References: <650@trwacs.fp.trw.com>
Sender: news@unocal.com (Unocal USENET News)
Organization: Unocal Corporation
Lines: 13
Originator: stgprao@xing


Distributed memory yes!
Holographic memory no!

Pribram is not a physicist or electrical engineer, so when he was looking
for analogy to explain global structures in the brain, he used holography.
Like any analogy, there are limits.  For example, looking for the brain's
equivalent of a reference beam is over extending this analogy.
There are alternative mathematical descriptions of distributed or global
signal processing- Fourier transforms, time-frequency transforms, matrix
methods- just to name a few.  Holograms are more concrete to the general
public and non-specialists like Pribram than these alternatives, so that
is why he probably used this analogy.


