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From: David E. Weldon, Ph.D. <David.E.Weldon@DaytonOH.ATTGIS.COM>
Subject: Re: Chaos and Computation
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Date: Mon, 15 May 1995 17:12:14 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu sci.nonlinear:3152 sci.cognitive:7609 comp.ai.philosophy:28103


}==========Doug Merritt, 5/11/95==========
}
}In article <kovskyD8Dwu7.AAG@netcom.com> 
}kovsky@netcom.com (Bob Kovsky) writes:
}>	They said:  [...]
}>notion of memory as a replica or a transformation of 
}"information" given
}>in the world (human memories are highly context- and 
}affect-sensitive and
}>to some extent nonveridical);
}
}Yes, but "everyone" knows that; sophisticated models (as 
}opposed to
}straw man models) have many layers of transformation and 
}preprocessing,
}so e.g. context sensitivity occurs inherently as a matter of the
}particular features that are input to any given layer.
}
}>the conception of memory retrieval as the
}>relaxation of a network to a stable state (a brain is continually 
}exposed
}>to changing input patterns and has no opportunity to freeze them 
}while
}>waiting for an approach to equilibrium)...[more of the same]
}
}This is even more of a straw man; for instance, pipelined 
}processing
}does not require inputs to be frozen; the relaxation can be 
}achieved via
}a sequence of processing stages -- an unrolled feedback layer.
}
}Or in an artificial system, say that it *is* implemented as a single
}layer, in which case the question is how fast can it achieve that
}relaxation. If it's fast enough, then inputs will have changed only
}negligeably by the time it finishes.
}
}Only an idiot would hold the view they are refuting -- that the brain
}expects the world to freeze for a long time while it gets busy 
}processing
}its relaxation.
}
There is a facinating relation between "alpha" wave frequency (10 Hz) and
serveral perceptual phenomena that suggest that our brains sample the
environment every 100 msec. and process the sample during that period.  The
brain, in short, freezes the world every 100 msec., taking in frames of
information, along with additional data on motion in the visual field.  The
perceptual phenomena I refer to include "apparent motion" studies, Critical
Fusion Frequency Studies, visual recognition studies, and studies using Evoked
Cortical Potentials.

The implication of this research is that we have a set of input buffers that
fill with data every 100 msec.  That data is then read by the brain and
processed while the buffers are reset.  Thus, all motion (and perception of
continuous time) is apparent and a construction of the perceptual centers of
the brain.

Food for thought.

