Posted on 09/28/2009 4:59:44 PM PDT by GodGunsGuts
Computers are becoming faster and more powerful all the time and those improvements have been mainly due to better hardware. Future improvements, however, may well rely increasingly on better architecture and software. One reason why this seems likely is that the human brain, with its very different architecture, dramatically out performs computers in performing various tasks (such as perceiving an object in a complex visual scene). If computers are to match the brain's performance, they likely will need to exploit features of the brain's design.
In some regards the brain's hardware is far beyond that of a computer. Its "wires," for instance, would go to the moon if stretched out. That's about 10,000 times longer than all the wire in a typical microprocessor chip. Similarly, the brain has about a hundred million million synapses (the connecting junctions between neurons) which is many thousands times more than the number of transistors in the microprocessor.
But perhaps even more amazing is the brain's architecture and software. For instance, whereas computers are based on the Von Neumann architecture which separates computation and memory, the brain combines these elements in ways not well understood.
Also, whereas computer components are highly predictable (deterministic) the brain's synapses are much less predictable (probabilistic). Any given signal may have only a 20% chance of successfully crossing the synapse and this is compensated with substantial redundancy. Aside from tremendous fault tolerance, this allows the brain to rapidly increase signals by modifying the probability of synapse crossing.
Such differences provide a profoundly different, and probably more powerful, computing architecture compared to the microprocessor. As one paper explains:
Because the brain is not bound by the Von Neumann architecture, exactly what a particular neural circuit computes can be modified on the fly without reference to other circuits (as when we shift our focus of attention from one thing to another) and can also remember things for a lifetime (how to ride a bicycle).
Exploiting the brain's architecture, however, will not be easy. For instance, we need to better understand how to use parallel computers:
The problem with emulating the brain’s massive parallelism, however, is that we are not even close to being able to use the increased hardware power efficiently; how to program parallel computers is a very active subject now in computer science.
But even the parallel programming problem is only the beginning. The far more difficult problem is to divine just what information processing and computations are carried out in the brain's neural circuits:
we believe the problem is not computer power and ability to program parallel machines, but rather our nearly total ignorance about what computations are actually carried out by the brain. Our view is that computers will never equal our best abilities until we can understand the brain’s design principles and the mathematical operations employed by neural circuits well enough to build machines that incorporate them.
If you find the brain's design astonishing, consider this even more astonishing fact: evolutionists say it all just evolved. The ability of the brain to develop from scratch, and its design and operation, they say, all arose from mutant forms. Amazing.
Two thousand years ago the Epicureans explained that the organization in nature arose from nothing more than the swerving motions of atoms. How naive. Evolution has moved us far beyond such a silly idea. Religion drives science and it matters.
My mother, who passed away years ago, often told me that when she was growing up she was told “man will NEVER split the atom”
I remember being told by my 5th (1959) grade teacher that God designed the goose down so perfectly that man would never be able to surpass it as an insulator.
So man can’t even begin to equal the human brain with current state of computers.
The only rational conclusion is that we need more time.
My mother, who passed away years ago, often told me that when she was growing up she was told "man will NEVER split the atom"
I remember being told by my 5th (1959) grade teacher that God designed the goose down so perfectly that man would never be able to surpass it as an insulator.
So man can't even begin to equal the human brain with current state of computers. The only rational conclusion is that we need more time.
I would say the only logical conclusion is that you knew two people that were wrong.
Man has the capacity to accomplish great things and discover great things.
What he lacks is the ability to create anything as magnificent and perfect as our universe. I also think Man lacks the ability to understand our universe on a fundamental level. We can glean enough to help us make our stay here more comfortable. Not much more though.
Two people who simply were repeating conventional wisdom of the time.
FWIW, my mother was convinced by her brother, a physicist for the Navy, that contrary to conventional wisdom, Gods perfect atom could be split. Turned out he was right. It may have shaken peoples faith in God at the time, I have no idea, but it sure doesn’t shake mine,
The same with the human brain. It is, after all, simply physical. It isn’t the soul.
You and I could argue endlessly about this, just as many did in the 30’s and early 40’s about the atom. At this point it comes down to beliefs and faith.
I believe God gave us both wisdom and a knowledge that we have only begun to tap into.
You and I could argue endlessly about this, just as many did in the 30's and early 40's about the atom. At this point it comes down to beliefs and faith. I believe God gave us both wisdom and a knowledge that we have only begun to tap into.
You and I aren't too far apart if we even have any disagreements at all. I think we can discover the more obvious parts of Creation but the soul is God's property (for lack of a better word). As is the ultimate meaning of all this [waves arms expansively to take in the entire Universe].
dead brains don't count
Thanks for the ping!
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