X-Message-Number: 11923 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: for Mike Perry: the world does not stop for sequential computers Date: Tue, 8 Jun 1999 23:59:58 +1000 (EST) Hi Mike! No, I was not arguing that the neural nets composing our brain were the same as those we use in computing. They don't have to be, especially for the kinds of tasks we now use them for. If we want to make an entire person, that may not be true --- but that is a different question. As for a neural net being simulated/imitated by a sequential computer, that's simply something that will not work at all. One ESSENTIAL feature is that these neural nets respond to the world; since the world will not wait for a sequential computer to go through all the many operations needed to simulate a LARGE neural net (I'm not questioning that possibility for small ones) trying to do that will fail ignominiously. We're not just doing computing here, we're trying to react to the world as it comes to us. You may reasonably ask if a sufficiently large PARALLEL computer might manage such a task. After all, if it's fast enough we can even consider making a parallel computer able to predict the weather. My problem in that case is different: if (as I claim) computers basically deal with symbols, then with a parallel computer we'll be powerful enough to work for a while --- until one day our symbols break down when our parallel computer is faced with something real for which it has no symbols at all, or even for which its symbols become contradictory. Remember the black swans! Best and long long life, Thomas Donaldson PS: Incidentally, Canberra is a designed city, with a very nice lake big enough for sailing in the summer. And they've got not only the native black swans (which really are black) but immigrant white ones too. Plus lots of ducks of various species. The lake is surrounded by a park, as you might guess. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=11923