X-Message-Number: 26863 Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2005 09:28:22 -0400 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: a little more for Yvan A bit more for Yvan: Rereading your answer to me, it looks to me that there is an essential difference between the notion of tasks which a brain must perform which each of us has. Our brains do not primarily act as calculators and do tasks which have few restrictions on timing. Our brains have evolved to do tasks for which timing becomes very important, something which is true for many instances in the real world. That is why I say that SIMULTANEOUS processing is so important. If we were simply doing calculations, with no restriction as to when we must complete them, even a single processor would serve. It's because we are human beings living in a real world that we want computers which will complete their calculations in less than 1 million years. We could hardly flee a tiger if it took us 1 million years to work out what to do. Yes, this problem of timing is one that Turing did not consider at all --- though to be fair, he was only considering calculations and not the problem of fleeing a tiger. And because of this, Turing's ideas start breaking down when we consider parallel computers of any kind. Just as small addition to my comments, to make one difference very clear. Best wishes and long long life for all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=26863