X-Message-Number: 26035 Date: Sat, 16 Apr 2005 14:31:17 -0400 From: Daniel Crevier <> Subject: To Tom Donaldson re parallel processing References: <> You claim that it is impossible to simulate a brain with a digital computer because: "There is a fundamental problem here which doesn't come from the speed of neurons or computer processors, it comes from the simple fact that the universe itself is working everywhere simultaneously. Even very fast time-sharing processors will get caught out by that, though no so easily as we ourselves would be caught out (if we worked by time-sharing)." Isn't weather forecasting a counterexample to that claim? Air masses can be modeled as a multitude of little cells that 'work everywhere simultaneously'. Yet they are routinely simulated by computers that contain many fewer processors than there are cells in the model. And this is done faster than real time: it allows one to predict tomorrow's weather. Daniel Crevier Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=26035