From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!trwacs!erwin Tue Nov 26 12:30:55 EST 1991
Article 1439 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: erwin@trwacs.UUCP (Harry Erwin)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Neural nets and the Chinese room
Keywords: neural net, Chinese Room, GOFAI
Message-ID: <436@trwacs.UUCP>
Date: 20 Nov 91 17:25:37 GMT
References: <1991Nov18.132406.1977@st-andrews.ac.uk>
Distribution: comp.ai.philosophy
Organization: TRW Systems Division, Fairfax VA
Lines: 17

One point that should be remembered is that one level down from the neuron
is not chemistry. The neuron is a rather sophisticated network of
processors in itself. And it exists in a complex supporting hierarchy of
cells. See Pribram. There's some evidence from the biological side that
neurons communicate by means of local electric fields and chemical
gradients, and there are some portions of the brain where nerve impulses
are not seen--the retina for example. Understand that, and you'll probably
understand memory in a global sense. It took listening to Pribram for me
to realize that Penrose has some real points. Although quantum processes
are probably too low a level to have significant influence on brain
function, the mathematics that appears to apply to the description of
brain dynamics is the same statistical dynamics used to analyze quantum
systems.

-- 
Harry Erwin
Internet: erwin@trwacs.fp.trw.com


