Thinking in the Box
Even the simplest brains of the simplest animals are awesome computational instruments. They do computations we do not know how to do, in ways we do not understand
There is nothing that is done in the nervous system that we cannot emulate with electronics if we understand the principles of neural information processing.
Mead 1990
Julia and Sam are talking about the following article:
Neuromorphic Computing
In this post the dialogue is realised by an interaction of virtual characters, for more information please check the page “Virtual characters“
Sam
When we talk about computers, we tend to distinguish the machine and its programming: hardware and software
Julia
OK, yes, I think everyone is familiar with those terms
Sam
Great, but I’d like to point out how wrong that is, in some respects …
Sam
Where do we draw the line between those? Are they really that different? Doesn’t the design of the one determine the design of the other?
Julia
Whoa, those are tricky questions! 😅
Remarkably similar to the kind we ask about humans; is that what you’re after?
Sam
In a sense. We are so used to the hardware/software distinction, that we forget that somewhere they overlap and interact
Julia
Can you give me some examples? Otherwise, I fear our readers won’t all get it …😅
Sam
Sure: flip-flops are at the same time a hardware device and a software abstraction, a circuit and a one or zero
Julia
Right, so there is a level where the distinction is arbitrary: it is both a thing and information
Sam
Exactly! 😉 But then of course at other levels things are much more clear cut
Julia
But what did you mean with “wetware” then?
Sam
Ah, yes, well as far as I know, the brain is like that all over: it is tremendously difficult to keep the hardware and software apart
Julia
Oooh, now I get what you mean: a classical computer architecture is completely different
Sam
Right, but if the brain is an information processor, you can try to just copy the informationally relevant bits
Julia
So like Smee you can capture the same informationally relevant relations in a different hardware?
Sam
Up to a point, of course. We can try to copy some of the structure of the brain, but only in software really
Julia
What do you mean? 🤔
Sam
Well, most “artificial neural networks” (ANN) actually are software simulations that run on ordinary beige box computers
Julia
Aha, so as you said: a lot of simplification and abstraction 😊
Sam
Correct! We still don’t know exactly how the brain does all its information processing or how to copy that efficiently
Sam
and then there’s the whole digital/analog problem …
… Continue reading our conversations that are posted every Monday …
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