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Article 2308 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: yodaiken@chelm.cs.umass.edu (victor yodaiken)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Searle's response to silicon brain?
Message-ID: <40972@dime.cs.umass.edu>
Date: 20 Dec 91 14:39:09 GMT
References: <40822@dime.cs.umass.edu> <40825@dime.cs.umass.edu> <1991Dec19.222224.7716@hilbert.cyprs.rain.com>
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In article <1991Dec19.222224.7716@hilbert.cyprs.rain.com> max@hilbert.cyprs.rain.com (Max Webb) writes:
>In article <40825@dime.cs.umass.edu> yodaiken@chelm.cs.umass.edu (victor yodaiken) writes:
>>There is no evidence to suggest that silicon digital neuron simulators can
>>mimic real neurons or that mind is no more than than the product of
>
>Read Koch & Segev, for a start. The simple fact is that real neurons
>are being simulated now, generating identical waveforms, and behavior. Some
>models mimic lesion behavior. Today. Your assertion is flat wrong, and
>as for hatred of science, love of science would be associated with
>a willingness to read the relevant literature.

I'd be happy to be corrected, and admit to not being at all expert on these
matters, but I keep seeing material in scientific journals which contradicts
your claim. For example, in Science (Dec 6) there is an article on 
depression which quotes a fellow by the name of Post at NIMH.
	"Usually we have thought about stress at the level of
	neurotransmitters and receptors," he says. But in rat studies, the
	researchers found that an "accute stressor" can turn on genes for
	substances that initiae long term cell alteratons. They did this by
	mapping the role of the proto-oncogene c-fos, which transcribes a
	protien that appears to be a marker for long-term brain changes.
	With repeated stimulation, effects first appearing on one side of
	the hippocampus spread thoughtout the brain.

So, unless I'm just confused, we have here some suggestion that
phychological states may cause physical changes which, according to Post,
may predispose further depressive episodes. Do your simulations take these
effects into account?  Can they? 





