Matt, On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 6:18 AM, Matt Mahoney <[email protected]>wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 1:31 AM, Steve Richfield > <[email protected]> wrote: > >> There are some differences. The human brain has a > >> couple hundred different types of neurons and a couple hundred > >> different neurotransmitters. > > > > Probably not that many neurotransmitters - maybe a couple of dozen. > > I was surprised too. Apparently this was claimed by the Blue Brain project. > No one (that I know of) has looked closely, but there is apparently SOME way that neurons can tell which other neurons are worth connecting to. I suspect some sort of genetic "key" that each neuron gets, to be able to recognize potentially valid input and output neurons. There are other possibilities, e.g. some sort of transmitter that gets recoded with each neuron it passes through, so it is possible to tell how "stale" a signal is. There are likely several mechanisms working together. Whatever is happening, it orchestrates self-adaptive development (that apparently continues through life) and hence is a **BIG** missing piece of AGI, that is every bit as important as neurotransmitters, yet isn't even on the RADAR of the wet labs. If you look at DNA markers without considering such things, you end up wrongly concluding that other things, like neurotransmitters, are MUCH more complex than they actually are. 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
