This issues has bothered me for a long time, and I'd like to explore it a bit:
While digital computers obviously can be set up to solve equations, there still seems to be a significant difference in efficiency of simulating/ calculating versus physical analog 'doing'/ execution - like for example in solving an n-body problem. Real systems system just produce the result by interaction of all the forces (electro/ mechanical), while computers have to approximate/ iterate. Key question: Are there AGI common problems where digital/simulated approaches need hyper-exponential amounts of computing power compared to physical systems? Is this kind of equation-solving core to AGI? I don't think so, but. Other may be able to formulate this better. What has bothered me is the glib assertion that a digital computer an calculate to any arbitrary level of precision (true). but does the cost become unworkable in practice, even with Moore's law. Peter From: Steve Richfield [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2012 6:39 AM To: AGI Subject: Re: [agi] Happy 100th Birthday Alan Turing - No, computers will never think, but machines will! Hey everyone, Remember my discussions about how computers fundamentally compute functions, while biological neurons appear to fundamentally solve equations - a MUCH higher level thing to do. It appears possible to design something resembling a computer to do this, but NOT to simulate this sort of functionality in any sort of practical way because of the astronomical inefficiency of solving huge systems of simultaneous NON-linear equations using conventional computational methods. No, I don't think that we need any sort of silicon wetware, but we DO appear to need a radically more advanced sort of "computer", but probably NOT anything that Turing has ever thought of - in short, NOT a "Turing machine". Besides, you'll never get 2-D silicon to work like 3-D wetware. Steve ================ ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-c97d2393 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-2484a968 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
