From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.ecf!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!mips!smsc.sony.com!markc Mon Dec 16 11:01:01 EST 1991
Article 2030 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: markc@smsc.sony.com (Mark Corscadden)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: From neurons to computation: how?
Message-ID: <1991Dec11.023152.14901@smsc.sony.com>
Date: 11 Dec 91 02:31:52 GMT
References: <40375@dime.cs.umass.edu> <12636@pitt.UUCP> <59809@netnews.upenn.edu>
Organization: Sony Microsystems Corp, San Jose, CA
Lines: 31

In article <59809@netnews.upenn.edu> weemba@libra.wistar.upenn.edu (Matthew P Wiener) writes:
>In article <12636@pitt.UUCP>, geb@dsl (gordon e. banks) writes:
>>...
>>				       The brains of very simple
>>animals, such as some worms and slugs have been completely mapped
>>and their behavior has been characterized entirely in terms of
>>firing of their neurons.

This is actually a reply to Mr. Banks' statement above.  I missed his
original article so I'm borrowing the text I found in Mr. Wiener's reply.
Hope that's okay with Mr. Wiener.  Also, I hope I'm getting the attribution
correct and that the above was actually written by Mr. Banks.

What do you (gordon e. banks) mean that their (the worms and slugs)
behavior has been characterized *entirely* in terms of the firing of
their neurons?  I assume you mean this has been done explicitly and
not just "in principle", since I don't see how you could derive exact
behavior from the neural net unless you had a detailed model, down to
firing times, thresholds, synaptic connections, etc.  Incredible, if
true!  Do you have references??!!?!

I'm tempted to say that you don't know what you're talking about, but
I'd love to find out I'm wrong.  My interest isn't philosophical, I'm
primarily interested in working with artificial neural nets.  A working
model, on-line, of a real living brain would be very interesting, slug
or not.  Don't slugs *crawl*???  I'd love to see the details of how
the motor activity necessary for crawling is implemented ...

Mark Corscadden
markc@smsc.sony.com
work: (408)944-4086


