2008/6/30 Terren Suydam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > savant I've always theorized that savants can do what they do because they've been able to get direct access to, and train, a fairly small number of neurons in their brain, to accomplish highly specialized (and thus rather unusual) calculations.
I'm thinking specifically of Ramanujan, the Hindi mathematician. He appears to have had access to a "multiply-add" type circuit in his brain, and could do symbolic long division and multiplication as a result -- I base this on studying some of the things he came up with -- after a while, it seems to be clear how he came up with it (even if the feat is clearly not reproducible). In a sense, similar feats are possible by using a modern computer with a good algebra system. Simon Plouffe seems to be a modern-day example of this: he noodles around with his systems, and finds various interesting relationships that would otherwise be obscure/unknown. He does this without any particularly deep or expansive training in math (whence some of his friction with "real academics"). If Simon could get a computer-algebra chip implanted in his brain, (i.e. with a very, very user-freindly user-interface) so that he could work the algebra system just by thinking about it, I bet his output would resemble that of Ramanujan a whole lot more than it already does -- as it were, he's hobbled by a crappy user interface. Thus, let me theorize: by studying savants with MRI and what-not, we may find a way of getting a much better man-machine interface. That is, currently, electrodes are always implanted in motor neurons (or visual cortex, etc) i.e. in places of the brain with very low levels of abstraction from the "real word". It would be interesting to move up the level of abstraction, and I think that studying how savants access the "magic circuits" in thier brain will open up a method for high-level interfaces to external computing machinery. --linas ------------------------------------------- agi Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: http://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=106510220-47b225 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
