The Brain is as the Brain does
The primary purpose of all neural systems is centralized control of various biological functions…
In the development of information technology there now seems to exist a new phase whereby the aim is to replicate many of these “Neural” functions artificially
Kohonen 1988
John and Sam are talking about the following article:
An introduction to neural computing


In this post the dialogue is realised by an interaction of virtual characters, for more information please check the page “Virtual characters“

John
Hi Sam, I wanted to thank you for helping us out with our article!😊

Sam
My pleasure, I enjoyed working with Julia and you 😄

John
Can I ask you another favor though?

Sam
Sure, happy to oblige 😊

John
For our next issue we’re thinking of looking at Neuromorphic Engineering

Sam
Very interesting, yes! 😊

John
There’s a lot of technical problems with the classical approach, so we thought about presenting some alternatives

Sam
Of course, but neuromorphic computing can mean a lot of different things

John
Yes, that’s why we need your help! I know it is not simply “doing things like the brain”

Sam
Indeed, in a very literal sense we still can’t do that

John
But Julia’s historical approach did convince me that we are getting closer and closer, right?

Sam
I would agree, yes, but we’re still a long way off

John
OK, fair enough, but would you willing to collaborate on an article discussing the various approaches?

Sam
Certainly! Do you plan on going as far back as the 19th century like Julia did?

John
Not this time, thought I found it quite interesting what she uncovered

Sam
So mostly 20th century stuff?

John
Yeah, we wanted to look at the parallel developments from the 1950s onwards

Sam
Side by side with the “official” history of AI? Interesting! I like it already

John
Yes, that was the plan, good to heave you on board!

Sam
Can I suggest Analog Computing as the first topic?
… Continue reading our conversations that are posted every Monday …
Related post
Total posts on the argument
Fire All Neurons!
Mechanical analog computers had their origins in Naval Gunnery in World War I […] mechanical analog computers remained of considerable military importance certainly until well into the 1960s and have only been superseded by digital computing systems in the 1970s.
Counting on the Brain
Despite the evolution of the nervous system, it is not accompanied by a manual explaining the principles of operation …
Found in Translation
Whereas the notion of a “correct” computation is unproblematic … The notion of a “good” translation is ridden with problems …
The ends justify the rules
Complicated mental processes are entirely reducible to such simple activities as the attentive observation of statements previously accepted as true, the perception of structural, purely external, connections among these statements, and the execution of mechanical transformations as prescribed by the rules of inference
The Digital Analogy
Computers are only prostheses; they no more do calculations than clocks tell the time. Clocks help us to tell the time, butthey don’t do it by themselves
Thinking in the Box
Even the simplest brains are awesome computational instruments, they do computations we do not know how to do, in ways we do not understand…
Wet Between the Ears
Sensations are received by a certain definite number of sensor nerves, which constitute the only means we possess of obtaining a knowledge of the external world …