IUBio

machine brains

Dirk Wessels icircle at xs4all.nl
Thu Jan 28 10:59:06 EST 1999


Ray Scanlon wrote:

> We ask for a materialistic explanation of how the brain works based on
> the
> neuron and the anatomy of the nervous system. We ask that the
> explanation
> pay attention to those aspects of the nervous system that are
> reflected in
> the subjective view of the brain as experienced by the soul (mind).

What do you exactly mean by "materialistic"...If you combine
"materialistic" with quantumphysics or even "superstring theory",
there is much more "holism" involved than is currently accepted.
Especially moleculair structures like DNA and "microtubules" seem to
have
quantumphysical aspects that most "neuroscienists" seem to ignore.
A good example is a simple form of "superconductivity" that has been
found in
microtubes of carbon.
An example is the model of Hamerhoff and penrose.
http://www.u.arizona.edu/~hameroff/

> As a first step we examine the brain to see how the neurons
> do these things.

The problem is that we know how the brain recalls things, but theydo not
satisfy what we personally recall. The level of details seem different
to me. Besides that there is a lot of "abstraction" involved, which we
can not model. That is because any model restricts "abstraction" while
it
has no limits.
Learning is even worse. People can learn without ever having seen
the answer, but just by "imagining" it, by "intuition", and "thinking".
Current neuro-computing models do not seem to satisfy this problem.

> If we can explain the how the brain thinks, how it decides,
> we shall know how to design the machine.

What if there is a "conscious part" which controls the growing or
respond of neurons in some subtile way?

Maybe we can't think about it, but we can always imagine it. :-)

Greetings,
    Dirk






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