X-Message-Number: 12620 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: synapses do NOT each carry a single bit Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1999 22:24:46 +1000 (EST) To everyone: Unfortunately, our neurons and our brain look much more complex than simply one bit per synapse --- or whatever. First of all, synapses aren't always permanent, and neurons grow and lose them constantly. Second, synapses do not simply act to STORE memories; once their activity has increased, then they act as part of our brain circuitry to express ... something ... (since individual neurons are involved in many different activities). The really important thing to remember here is that neurons aren't passive storehouses of memory, they are constantly active. They work more like individual processors than like memory chips; and since they are biological, that activity can involve growth and loss, too ie. growth of new synapses, loss of others. This has actually been observed. (If you want me to cite references, I can send them separately). Moreover, the changes in synapses means that no single synapse really represents a single bit. I will add here that these features do NOT mean that the informational view of us as distinct from the physical view is false. They do say that we're not dealing with something which easily fits into any existing computer model, including the neural nets which have now come into wide use. Nor is it fundamentally impossible to create neural nets similar to those in our brain. It just hasn't yet been done. We may very well, eventually, be stored as patterns of information only; but realizing that pattern of information in anything like present computers would be unnecessarily involved and difficult, and perhaps even impossible because such devices cannot imitate brains closely enough. (An analogy, to explain this point: we cannot make airplanes if we insist on using wheels only. At some time or other we'll need to make and use WINGS). Best and long long life to all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=12620