Hi John, }- }- I have always heard that "analog computers are impossible" and I've read Mike's post and your inrotductory post on this... Part of what I got from Mike's post was that analog computers are much more like "dedicated" computers, that is, they are made to do just one thing, or just a very few things. }- The French mathemetician, Blaise Pascal ( namesake for the }- Swiss-designed Pascal programming language ) built a }- "numerical engine" out of gears and clockworks about 300 years }- ago; it was a true analog computer, too. Wasn't this the subject of a recent science fiction novel called "The Difference Engine"? My old man has it around here somewhere, maybe I should read it... As for truth (as opposed to science fiction) I remember seeing something about this computer of Pascal's on PBS some time ago. [snip] And thanks for the excellent info and explainations :) Mike too. }- An IBM experimental nueral-net system was "taught" the }- techniques by ob- serving an expert sonarman's responses for }- EIGHT HOURS. It then went "online", identifying sonar targets }- by what it had learned. It had learned to correctly identify }- these things with about 85% accuracy - in 8 hours. It took }- human subjects approximately three years of training to }- accomplish a similar level of accuracy !! Hmmm, now you're giving me the goose-bumps John! I don't know if this is comfortable for me...maybe I an afraid of computers after all. The Matrix anyone? I want the blue pill! Boanne - -- FROM: Over the hills and far away... [EMAIL PROTECTED] A Dinosaurs Garden (collection of DOS links and files) http://www.sound.net/~ashelton/dinosaur/dg.htm *Women and cats will do as they please and men and dogs should *relax and get used to the idea. -- Robert A. Heinlein To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message. Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies.
