On Wednesday 21 February 2007 15:34, Eric Baum wrote: > Josh> The other idea in OI worth noting is Mountcastle's Principle, > Josh> that all of the cortex seems to be doing the same thing. ...
> [Hawkins is] basically asserting that what's wired in is unimportant, > but this neglects the computational learning theory, > which indicates it is. Well, I can't speak for Hawkins, but I think there's room for plenty of ontological levels in between the homogeneity and the learning bias. As you (Eric) pointed out, evolution likes to reuse basic designs with variations. I find it unremarkable that there might be a basic computational substrate in cortex that would look more or less the same to a neuroscientist under a microscope. Further we know that areas responsible for control and sensing move around, and grow and shrink, with use or disuse. This strikes me as nothing more than load-balancing. The question is (a) whether the computational fabric itself has properties that we would find useful for AI directly, or should we just use a big Beowulf and look a few levels higher up for inspiration? (b) if it does have useful properties, what are they? My own guess is that there are some associative and parallel operations in the substrate that we'd like to have in hardware once we get them figured out. As for learning bias, there's a nasty bias in classical AI that is left over from the sectarian rift between AI and cybernetics in the 50's. I happen to think that science has come up with a few useful representations, and that math, diff eq's, and systems theory are excellent building blocks. I'm willing to give these, plus logic and statistics, a shot before being convinced that we need something new. Getting representations right is tough but I'm also willing to work under the assumption that the brain does a fair amount of it by brute force, i.e. yes it's NP-hard, but with some heuristics and some teraflops you can get close enough often enough. Josh ----- 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
