Kevin wrote:
http://www.physorg.com/news82190531.html
"Rabinovich and his colleague at the Institute for Nonlinear Science at the
University of California, San Diego, Ramon Huerta, along with Valentin
Afraimovich at the Institute for the Investigation of Optical Communication
at the University of San Luis Potosi in Mexico, present a new model for
understanding decision making. Their paper, titled "Dynamics of Sequential
Decision Making," has been published on Physical Review Letters."
From that same article:
"Rabinovich explains that a sequential approach is needed: an approach
that combines dynamic and probabilistic steps. And that, he says, is
precisely what he, Huerta and Afraimovich are proposing. "This is a new
class of model," he says. "We have found a window to consciousness, and
now we can generalize this into other cognitive functions.""
Sigh! I haven't read the article, but this looks like amateur nonsense.
Found a "window to consciousness" eh?
Physicists sometimes get this disease that makes them think they can
solve the problem of understanding minds, using just a handful of
equations, and without bothering to read the psychology/philosophy/AI
literature. Telltale sign of this? After talking about something else
they suddenly let slip that this is also about "consciousness".
(I can be snarky about 'em because I used to be a physicist once, and
started out thinking the same way. Only difference is, I did some hard
work to read the literature and got over it).
Richard Loosemore.
-----
This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email
To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to:
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?list_id=303
