X-Message-Number: 4287
From:  (Thomas Donaldson)
Subject: neural nets and computers
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 19:45:24 -0700 (PDT)

It's not obvious to me that neural nets are computers at all. They have no
stored program and do not operate on a sequence of bits in accord with that
program. (A simulation of a neural net in a computer, which is often done,
does not make the neural net a computer any more than simulation of rainfall
makes rainfall a computer). And a suitable neural net might also be trained
to emulate a computer (perhaps only a simple one) but that yet again does
not show that neural nets are computers.

Moreover, now especially, designers have been using neural nets as attachments
to computers to do those jobs for which neural nets work much better than 
the standard computer. That too does not show that neural nets are computers,
any more than your video screen is a computer.

If neural nets are to be considered computers, then I may have a misconception
about what is the definition of computer. If so I would be happy to be 
corrected, not by an ex cathedra statement but by reference to some book on
the subject. 

For those who are eager for an argument, I want to point out finally that 
the question of whether or not neural nets are computers has at best a 
tangential relationship with the issue of uploading. I'm not here retreating
from my previous opinions on that issue; I'm just asking a question.

			Long long life,

				Thomas Donaldson


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