Those interested in a "grand theory of human consciousness" will enjoy Gerald Edelman's "Bright Air, Brilliant Fire." From a perceptive essay: "It is a grand masterpiece laid out before us of how the matter of the brain is organized and assembles itself into recursive, intertwining loops of systems of neuronal groups as it bootstraps itself into perception, primary consciousness, and higher consciousness." db
----- Original Message ----- From: "Giles Bowkett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group" <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, December 24, 2006 2:47 PM Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The what is AI question > On 12/24/06, phil henshaw <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> I'm a little confused. If AI is the art of replicating the mechanisms >> of human intelligence with machines, doesn't that assume that brain >> function is digital? I don뭪 think that's been demonstrated as yet. > > The metaphor makes sense, but the thing is, we really don't have > enough there to generalize from. In practical terms, most > implementations of AI tend to be very targeted. Like the techniques > which emulate inference and causality are very, very different from > the techniques which emulate language and grammar. (Just as an > example.) What you really have is not a grand unified theory of human > consciousness so much as a grab-bag of techniques that sorta work. > Some techniques are effective enough to offer insight into the > individual processes they emulate, but there really isn't anything > consistent enough to offer general insight into intelligence itself. > > -- > Giles Bowkett > http://www.gilesgoatboy.org > http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com > http://gilesgoatboy.blogspot.com > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
