http://mindhacks.com/2007/07/10/edelman-on-neural-darwinism-and-consciousness/ Neuroscience and psychology news and views. Fri, 24 May 2013 17:03:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://mindhacks.com/2007/07/10/edelman-on-neural-darwinism-and-consciousness/#comment-7264 Wed, 11 Jul 2007 17:49:43 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/edelman-on-neural-darwinism-and-consciousness/#comment-7264 That interview is a little confusing. First, Edelman tears down the dualist dichotomy between mind and brain; then, he builds up a new dichotomy between “brains” and “computers”; finally, he undermines **that** dichotomy by saying that “algorithms” can “give you identical behavior” to real neurons.
For some reason I don’t quite fathom, Edelman classifies his “brain based devices” outside of artificial intelligence, whereas (in my experience) AI is typically an umbrella term covering expert systems, neural networks and lots of other stuff. Speaking not entirely tongue-in-cheek, one could say that a technique becomes not-AI once it works reliably: Google would have been considered “artificial intelligence” in 1985.
Edelman states that a Turing machine “can’t tolerate error,” which just doesn’t make any sense. Such a claim ignores everything Claude Shannon discovered about fault-tolerant communication, first of all.
“The brain isn’t a computer,” Edelman says, “but we’re simulating it in a computer.” Doesn’t the fact that one can build such a simulation really mean that the distinction between “brains” and “computers” is not valid?

]]> http://mindhacks.com/2007/07/10/edelman-on-neural-darwinism-and-consciousness/#comment-7263 Wed, 11 Jul 2007 17:26:59 +0000 http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/edelman-on-neural-darwinism-and-consciousness/#comment-7263 “. . . based on the same principle.”

]]>