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From: stevens@prodigal.psych.rochester.edu (Greg Stevens)
Subject: Re: Thought Question
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In <3edkgf$mmb@agate.berkeley.edu> <jerrybro@uclink2.berkeley.edu> writes:

>Yes, if.  Here's one of many reasons to doubt this:  Two computers
>can perform the same computation running at different speeds.
>However, if the brain is somehow "slowed down" sufficiently, the
>result will be a decrease in the ability of the brain to perform
>its function.  For example, I wouldn't trust a slowed-down
>brain behind the wheel of a car, or a sped-up brain for that
>matter.

Faulty logic, I think, because what creates the problem is the rate of
computation AS COMPARED to the rate of input.  If you slowed down a computer,
but it was getting input at a constant rate, and the timing of the input
mattered to that getting a backlog would impare effective computation,
then the computer can't be slowed down and perform effectively.  Similarly,
if a brain is slowed down and is performing a time-independant task, it's
fine -- just slow.

>I presume that this implies it is also speed independent.  In which
>case the brain's functioning cannot be fully understood in terms of
>any computations which it may perform.

Again, as soon as you have the computer interacting with an environment
which contributes a steady steam of changing input information, it's speed
matters as well.

Greg Stevens

stevens@prodigal.psych.rochester.edu

