http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/science_nation/socialbrains.jsp?WT.mc_id=USNSF_51
Undoubtedly we can see events related to the here and now in MRIs of the brain as shown by neuron activity. We can see concentrated thought. We can recognize a recalled memory as opposed to a process of reasoning. So where was the memory before it was recalled? A smell can conjure up memories of a concert decades ago and the songs and people associated with this event. A lifetime of sounds, smells, sights and thoughts are stored somewhere in our brain (an assumption) and kept associated with significant events yet separate from other events. By what mechanism do we sort through all these memories and find a specific one?
No argument the body chemistry is involved here. If the chemistry of our "soul" is off balance we confuse past events with current ones, lose short term memory yet remember a language web spoke only as a child, confuse imagined events with current reality ... the problems are well known. The mechanism is my question.
We remember sights, yet every second of a vision memory entails millions of analog voltages stored ... where and how?

 

I can't get in and it showed as :
ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT

I will try on some other time.

 

I can't get in and it showed as :
ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT

I will try on some other time.

Thank you for trying.
Is anybody else having trouble getting into the National Science Foundation site?

 

Thank you for trying.
Is anybody else having trouble getting into the National Science Foundation site?

I just try it again, it's the same, if that is belongs to the government, the night time could be close, but day time should be open, but I'm not really sure about that.

 

Worked for me.

 

Me too.

 

Me too.

So is it setup the IP limiting only in USA?

 

Unfortunately I'm not interested in Social interaction.

 

hp, I found a lot of insight about how the brain works from Kurtzweil's book, How to Create a Mind.
In short, ignoring for the moment all the more primitive brain functions, our cerebral cortex is a huge field of pattern matching groupings of neurons. Each pattern packet is about 100 neurons. These packets are connected to other packets locally, plus they connect to some major highways where bundles of long neurons connect major sections of the brain together. Memories are stored in the packets, but also connect to packets elsewhere in the brain. This makes the brain essentially a giant pattern matching machine, with the added feature of allowing a pattern match to then trigger other patterns almost anywhere else in the brain. Also, a pattern match can also *inhibit* triggering another pattern either locally or elsewhere. It's a good read, overlooking the few times Kurtzweil blows his own horn, although he's probably earned the right to.

 

hp, I found a lot of insight about how the brain works from Kurtzweil's book, How to Create a Mind.
In short, ignoring for the moment all the more primitive brain functions, our cerebral cortex is a huge field of pattern matching groupings of neurons. Each pattern packet is about 100 neurons. These packets are connected to other packets locally, plus they connect to some major highways where bundles of long neurons connect major sections of the brain together. Memories are stored in the packets, but also connect to packets elsewhere in the brain. This makes the brain essentially a giant pattern matching machine, with the added feature of allowing a pattern match to then trigger other patterns almost anywhere else in the brain. Also, a pattern match can also *inhibit* triggering another pattern either locally or elsewhere. It's a good read, overlooking the few times Kurtzweil blows his own horn, although he's probably earned the right to.

Interesting. So how many neurons do we have compared to the needs of storing a lifetime of events in memory at maybe a billion analog voltage events per second for 60 years?
How do we store an analog voltage? How do we interrogate it?

 

Something folk miss, memory is not exact. It can and does change with time. I suspect this is a function of consciousness.

You don't hear much about it, but there is a branch of electronics called neural network electronics. It has had some interesting results, but not extremely practical yet.

 

I watched a recent Nova that proposed an interesting concept.
We can reproduce some of the human sensors such as vision, smell etc but it is the connection with the brain that gets tricky.
When the first cochlear implant was developed, it was predicted it may be a failure as it relied on the organ to brain connection that is relatively unknown, after the successful implant, it was discovered that the brain can (re)learn new/different connections, it was then considered that if it can do this, maybe if we can come up with a way to connect with the brain so that information may be fed into the brain for it to learn or be taught with externally fed information.
This opens the concept that if this were successful, maybe we can bypass some of the undesirable traits caused by evolution, Tribalism etc, but then again this may open other undesirable effects.
Fodder for thought though.
Max.

 

this may open other undesirable effects.

You mean like the Borg in Star Trek?

 

Interesting. So how many neurons do we have compared to the needs of storing a lifetime of events in memory at maybe a billion analog voltage events per second for 60 years?
How do we store an analog voltage? How do we interrogate it?

Wikipedia has an article on the number of neurons of various species from worm to human. Part of what happens on the circuits from sensors to cortex is elimination of non essential details. That's why we can focus our vision, for example, on a book and ignore peripheral details.
IBM is building a neural net based computation system that will bring a new dimension to how computers work.
http://www.technologyreview.com/new...sses-data-similar-to-the-way-your-brain-does/

 

Sharon has almost no observable brain. Since she was a child, doctors have told her that she has no more than 10-15% of a normal brain.
Sharon Parker The Woman with the Mysterious Brain.

Social brains: Do insect societies share brain power?

 

Something folk miss, memory is not exact. It can and does change with time. I suspect this is a function of consciousness.

You don't hear much about it, but there is a branch of electronics called neural network electronics. It has had some interesting results, but not extremely practical yet.

Certainly it can. I am always amazed by those Jeopardy champions that pull out all those facts so quickly and perfectly. We all have the same chemistry. Are their brains so different from others?