X-Message-Number: 26297
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 10:42:17 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: computer simulation of brains

Hi everyone!

It will be very interesting indeed to see how well the Blue Brain Project
actually works when it's implemented. The major question in my own mind
about this project comes from the evidence of just how variable are
brains are; most of such evidence came out in the last 15 years.
Implementors of a brain model will need to implement changes in number
and destination of synapses, and the production of new neurons, both.
I do not know myself to what degree such variability will turn out to
be important, but simply because of natural selection it seems very
unlikely to me that we retain those features without using them a 
lot. It's even more interesting that production of new neurons by
the subventricular system does not, at least in monkeys and very likely
not in humans, make neurons which primarily migrate to the olfactory
cortex.

Given the differences between the architecture of Big Blue and that
of our brain, implementors will clearly have to write a simulation of
brains (and use more power and processors to run such a simulation).
To some degree a simulation can use "new neurons" and "new connections",
but they will likely become too many and cause problems long before
real new neurons and connections would do so.

I hope that the implementors of this idea tell us of their work in an
ongoing way. They've started a very large project, perhaps too large
for any fixed computer, and larger than they may think. If they get
some good information from it about how our brains work that will
be very nice, whether or not it actually fails in the end as a true
simulation of a real brain.

             Best wishes and long long life to all,

                  Thomas Donaldson

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