On Monday, 8 August 2016, Brent Meeker <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On 8/7/2016 11:20 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote: > >> Not necessarily. A digital computer also requires that time be digitized >>> so that its registers run synchronously. Otherwise "the state" is ill >>> defined. The finite speed of light means that spacially separated regions >>> cannot be synchronous. Even if neurons were only ON or OFF, which they >>> aren't, they have frequency modulation, they are not synchronous. >>> >> >> Synchronous digital machine can emulate asynchronous digital machine, and >> that is all what is needed for the reasoning. >> > > If the time variable is continuous, i.e. can't be digitized, I don't think > you are correct. >
If time is continuous, you would need infinite precision to exactly define the timing of a neuron's excitation, so you are right, that would not be digitisable. Practically, however, brains would have to have a non-zero engineering tolerance, or they would be too unstable. The gravitational attraction of a passing ant would slightly change the timing of neural activity, leading to a change in mental state and behaviour. -- Stathis Papaioannou -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
