X-Message-Number: 14926 Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2000 00:48:28 +0100 From: Henri Kluytmans <> Subject: computers and brains --> Thomas Donaldson argues that realtime simulation of the inter- connections of biological neurons is a serious problem for Turing machines. He seems to suggest that the problem arises because all possible connections between all neurons should be taken into account. And this number increases enormously (like (n-1)! ). However it appears that the major part of all interconnections between neurons in the brain are relatively local. This quite diminishes the connective complexity required. I also must mention again that it is fairly unlikely that the hardware architecture for uploading a human mind will be like a Turing machine. Furthermore he argues that current digital neural nets are only partial models. I agree with that. But does he dare to claim that we will not succeed in creating a sufficient model within a hundred years, or a thousand years, or ever ? The question should be : "Will the dynamics of the interconnections be implemented in hardware or software ?" There is always the option to represent every change in the connections by a real change in the hardware architecture, using this method there shouldn't be any more problems than in biological hardware. But because the major part of interconnections in our brain is relatively local it's likely that there are no insurmountable problems with implementing the connection changes in software, and not in hardware, because the hardware option will be less energy efficient (and also slower). Grtz, >Hkl Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=14926