Giovanni,
Thank you very much, this is an important reference. As you know, I believe that the brain implements self-organization, as a side effect of resource preservation, by minimizing the length of neuronal connections. From Physics alone, not using any input from Neuroscience. The article you found provides the first hard experimental evidence that they actually make their connections as short as possible, and this happens in many areas of the brain and across species as well. I obtained the paper already and will read it. Before I forget, you may want to visit my website SciControls.com, I am working on it now and posting new material from time to time. The other fascinating thing, is that the authors have identified L, the total length of all connections, which is exactly the action functional that I have proposed years ago. This is the first time that I find such identification. But they have no idea about the consequence of doing that, which is that the entropy and uncertainty of the information are minimized. But I have a problem. They say "target points", as if a neuron "knew" beforehand where it needs to connect. How can it know that unless it makes a connection first? And why do neurons make 10^4 connections each? I thought they would make many connections and then select the shortest ones and discard the remaining. And then, the shortest ones happen to be the ones that follow the 2/3 power law, but this is a consequence rather than a prerequisite. Maybe they say something about this in the paper, I haven't read it yet. My theory says nothing about the causes why the neurons make short connections, or make their connections short. I did say something about that myself, but I only intended to guess what the possible reasons could be. Any reason that results in short connections will minimize the entropy and self-organize the information. I always proposed that self-organization and intelligence were side effects of the brain making short connections. Why does the brain make them short, is another matter, it could be energy, resources, volume, anything. Thus, the brain does not know that it is intelligent, and does not intend to be. So you and I agree in full. I don't know much about sleep, but I always thought sleep was the time where the brain was at last able to concentrate all its resources for shortening its connections or selecting the shortest ones. Sergio From: Giovanni Santostasi [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2012 11:04 PM To: AGI Subject: Re: [agi] Uncertainty, causality, entropy, self-organization, and Schroedinger's cat. Sergio, Here some findings about neural connectivity and how the neurons minimize the length and volume occupied by the physical connection. http://www.kurzweilai.net/simple-mathematical-pattern-describes-shape-of-neuron-jungle I love your approach to AGI (and world modelling in general) to include physical constraints and optimization of the brain operation as foundation for what the brain does. But maybe besides energy and entropy as fundamental organizing factors, one should consider limited resources as volume and building materials in the brain as other important physical parameters that forces the brain to become an optimization machine. For example one of the principles that underlies slow wave sleep is the renormalization of synapses strength. The brain gets rid of connections that are not important (does that were not used often during the day or that didn't have a strong signal to noise ratio) during slow wave sleep. The main driving force during this process is that the brain needs to be careful in terms of resources allocation not necessarily only from an energetic point of view. What could minimize energy usage and entropy in a system that has not volume or material constraints could be not what works for a system like the brain that is necessarily confined by these parameters. Giovanni ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/18883996-f0d58d57 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/? <https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;> & Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/17130918-e0ecc803 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/? <https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;> & Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com AGI | <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/18883996-f0d58d57> | <https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;> Modify Your Subscription <http://www.listbox.com> ------------------------------------------- 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
