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  3. What 'Architecture' is the brain?

What 'Architecture' is the brain?

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  • D Dalek Dave

    Mine is Doric, with a little Gothic Perpendicular.

    ------------------------------------ To eat well in England, you should have a breakfast three times a day. W. Somerset Maugham 1925

    H Offline
    H Offline
    hairy_hats
    wrote on last edited by
    #7

    It's just baroque'n'roll but I like it.

    I hope you realise that hamsters are very creative when it comes to revenge. - Elaine

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    • E Euhemerus

      A neural network you say. Hmmmm, could this be likened to distributed computing such as BOINC then?

      H Offline
      H Offline
      hairy_hats
      wrote on last edited by
      #8

      No.

      I hope you realise that hamsters are very creative when it comes to revenge. - Elaine

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      • H hairy_hats

        It's just baroque'n'roll but I like it.

        I hope you realise that hamsters are very creative when it comes to revenge. - Elaine

        D Offline
        D Offline
        Dalek Dave
        wrote on last edited by
        #9

        You are just saying that to Tudor fat!

        ------------------------------------ To eat well in England, you should have a breakfast three times a day. W. Somerset Maugham 1925

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        • E Euhemerus

          As processor data and addressing widths have increased overtime from Intel's 4004 4bit processor to the now very common 64bit AMDs and Intels and then on to multicore, this got me on to thinking as to what 'architecture' the human brain might be; if it is at all comparable to a slice of silicon. My own thoughts on the matter are it must be at least a 16 bit/16+ core processor backed up with several 100 GBytes of memory, but with a poor memory management system! My reason for only 16bits is have you ever tried multiplying or dividing two 4 digit numbers in your head? Or tried to remember an eleven digit phone number someone has just told you; hence the poor memory management system? The 16+ cores; well when you think what the brain does consciously and unconsciously and all the parallel processing that takes place, one or two cores just wouldn't be enough.

          B Offline
          B Offline
          benjymous
          wrote on last edited by
          #10

          Tapsnapper wrote:

          My reason for only 16bits is have you ever tried multiplying or dividing two 4 digit numbers in your head? Or tried to remember an eleven digit phone number someone has just told you; hence the poor memory management system?

          Yes, but I bet you can catch a ball. That's far more complex mental arithmetic than dividing big numbers. http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/56348.html[^]

          Help me! I'm turning into a grapefruit! Buzzwords!

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          • D Dalek Dave

            You are just saying that to Tudor fat!

            ------------------------------------ To eat well in England, you should have a breakfast three times a day. W. Somerset Maugham 1925

            H Offline
            H Offline
            hairy_hats
            wrote on last edited by
            #11

            Life's like a Deco cards..

            I hope you realise that hamsters are very creative when it comes to revenge. - Elaine

            D 1 Reply Last reply
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            • D Dalek Dave

              Mine is Doric, with a little Gothic Perpendicular.

              ------------------------------------ To eat well in England, you should have a breakfast three times a day. W. Somerset Maugham 1925

              B Offline
              B Offline
              benjymous
              wrote on last edited by
              #12

              Not a romantic ruin? :-D

              Help me! I'm turning into a grapefruit! Buzzwords!

              1 Reply Last reply
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              • H hairy_hats

                Life's like a Deco cards..

                I hope you realise that hamsters are very creative when it comes to revenge. - Elaine

                D Offline
                D Offline
                Dalek Dave
                wrote on last edited by
                #13

                Ionic alled your attention to it becasue you are noveau rich!

                ------------------------------------ To eat well in England, you should have a breakfast three times a day. W. Somerset Maugham 1925

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                • B benjymous

                  Tapsnapper wrote:

                  My reason for only 16bits is have you ever tried multiplying or dividing two 4 digit numbers in your head? Or tried to remember an eleven digit phone number someone has just told you; hence the poor memory management system?

                  Yes, but I bet you can catch a ball. That's far more complex mental arithmetic than dividing big numbers. http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/56348.html[^]

                  Help me! I'm turning into a grapefruit! Buzzwords!

                  E Offline
                  E Offline
                  Euhemerus
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #14

                  I would have to disagree. I understand where you're coming from though, however, my two year old can catch a ball thrown to her, and I would say that she certainly doesn't have any comprehension of metal arithmatic. Maybe this is a case for sub-conscious mental arithmatic coming into play. Like any form of learning, it becomes easier over time, yet the maths would remain the same in the case of catching a ball. Is this a case of the brain refining its calculations?

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                  • E Euhemerus

                    As processor data and addressing widths have increased overtime from Intel's 4004 4bit processor to the now very common 64bit AMDs and Intels and then on to multicore, this got me on to thinking as to what 'architecture' the human brain might be; if it is at all comparable to a slice of silicon. My own thoughts on the matter are it must be at least a 16 bit/16+ core processor backed up with several 100 GBytes of memory, but with a poor memory management system! My reason for only 16bits is have you ever tried multiplying or dividing two 4 digit numbers in your head? Or tried to remember an eleven digit phone number someone has just told you; hence the poor memory management system? The 16+ cores; well when you think what the brain does consciously and unconsciously and all the parallel processing that takes place, one or two cores just wouldn't be enough.

                    R Offline
                    R Offline
                    Rama Krishna Vavilala
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #15

                    Tapsnapper wrote:

                    hence the poor memory management system?

                    Your brain can remember thousands of shapes, figures and faces. How much memory does a computer need for that?

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                    • R Rama Krishna Vavilala

                      Tapsnapper wrote:

                      hence the poor memory management system?

                      Your brain can remember thousands of shapes, figures and faces. How much memory does a computer need for that?

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                      Euhemerus
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #16

                      Rama Krishna Vavilala wrote:

                      Your brain can remember thousands of shapes, figures and faces. How much memory does a computer need for that?

                      Well I did say several hundred GBytes, maybe I should revise that to several hundred terabytes or even petabytes! Which also leads to another interesting question, can you exhaust the storage capacity of the brain or would it work like a FIFO system - First In, First Out?

                      H 1 Reply Last reply
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                      • E Euhemerus

                        As processor data and addressing widths have increased overtime from Intel's 4004 4bit processor to the now very common 64bit AMDs and Intels and then on to multicore, this got me on to thinking as to what 'architecture' the human brain might be; if it is at all comparable to a slice of silicon. My own thoughts on the matter are it must be at least a 16 bit/16+ core processor backed up with several 100 GBytes of memory, but with a poor memory management system! My reason for only 16bits is have you ever tried multiplying or dividing two 4 digit numbers in your head? Or tried to remember an eleven digit phone number someone has just told you; hence the poor memory management system? The 16+ cores; well when you think what the brain does consciously and unconsciously and all the parallel processing that takes place, one or two cores just wouldn't be enough.

                        R Offline
                        R Offline
                        Rajesh R Subramanian
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #17

                        Whatever may be the architecture, but while making the design of my brain, The Almighty decided to dedicate a fairly large amount of processing power to a separate unit, that enables me to do excellent manual transmission. :)

                        “Follow your bliss.” – Joseph Campbell

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                        • R Rajesh R Subramanian

                          Whatever may be the architecture, but while making the design of my brain, The Almighty decided to dedicate a fairly large amount of processing power to a separate unit, that enables me to do excellent manual transmission. :)

                          “Follow your bliss.” – Joseph Campbell

                          D Offline
                          D Offline
                          Dalek Dave
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #18

                          It's just the hardware that has reliability problems!

                          ------------------------------------ To eat well in England, you should have a breakfast three times a day. W. Somerset Maugham 1925

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                          • R Rajesh R Subramanian

                            Whatever may be the architecture, but while making the design of my brain, The Almighty decided to dedicate a fairly large amount of processing power to a separate unit, that enables me to do excellent manual transmission. :)

                            “Follow your bliss.” – Joseph Campbell

                            E Offline
                            E Offline
                            Euhemerus
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #19

                            LOL.

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                            • D Dalek Dave

                              It's just the hardware that has reliability problems!

                              ------------------------------------ To eat well in England, you should have a breakfast three times a day. W. Somerset Maugham 1925

                              R Offline
                              R Offline
                              Rajesh R Subramanian
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #20

                              Dalek Dave wrote:

                              It's just the hardware that has reliability problems!

                              Yes, but only while kept close (1 meter or less) to specimens of opposite sex. Turns out to be unpredictable. :) But never had an issue with doing manual transmission. Even in the presence of the said specimen, which actually enhances the capabilities. ;)

                              “Follow your bliss.” – Joseph Campbell

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                              • H hairy_hats

                                It's just baroque'n'roll but I like it.

                                I hope you realise that hamsters are very creative when it comes to revenge. - Elaine

                                M Offline
                                M Offline
                                Maximilien
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #21

                                hey, don't you rock me Amadeus.

                                This signature was proudly tested on animals.

                                1 Reply Last reply
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                                • E Euhemerus

                                  As processor data and addressing widths have increased overtime from Intel's 4004 4bit processor to the now very common 64bit AMDs and Intels and then on to multicore, this got me on to thinking as to what 'architecture' the human brain might be; if it is at all comparable to a slice of silicon. My own thoughts on the matter are it must be at least a 16 bit/16+ core processor backed up with several 100 GBytes of memory, but with a poor memory management system! My reason for only 16bits is have you ever tried multiplying or dividing two 4 digit numbers in your head? Or tried to remember an eleven digit phone number someone has just told you; hence the poor memory management system? The 16+ cores; well when you think what the brain does consciously and unconsciously and all the parallel processing that takes place, one or two cores just wouldn't be enough.

                                  P Offline
                                  P Offline
                                  peterchen
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #22

                                  At least the higher level functions ("the human") are implemented in a huge, freely reprogrammable FPGA, also known as the cortex. The hardware elements are not uniform, there are special elements like spindle neurons which nontheless work more or less by the same principle. Unlike todays FPGA's, the nodes support fuzzy logic, can be reinforced / dampened on the fly / by read access. The lower level functions ("the animal") are distributed over the huge lump blow the cortex, work (in my understanding of what we know today) similar, but with different specializations and importance of initial state.

                                  Personally, I love the idea that Raymond spends his nights posting bad regexs to mailing lists under the pseudonym of Jane Smith. He'd be like a super hero, only more nerdy and less useful. [Trevel]
                                  | FoldWithUs! | sighist | µLaunch - program launcher for server core and hyper-v server

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                                  • E Euhemerus

                                    Rama Krishna Vavilala wrote:

                                    Your brain can remember thousands of shapes, figures and faces. How much memory does a computer need for that?

                                    Well I did say several hundred GBytes, maybe I should revise that to several hundred terabytes or even petabytes! Which also leads to another interesting question, can you exhaust the storage capacity of the brain or would it work like a FIFO system - First In, First Out?

                                    H Offline
                                    H Offline
                                    Henry Minute
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #23

                                    According to this[^] it is between 1 and 1000 Terabytes (nothing like hedging your bets :) ) but is probably 3. Although I disagree, I calculate it as 3.85 TB. (I have been getting my neurons to number off whilst I was typing this.)

                                    Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”

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                                    • D Dave Sexton

                                      Tapsnapper wrote:

                                      Or tried to remember an eleven digit phone number someone has just told you

                                      Party trick of mine in high school after using an associative memory recall technique. Haven't tried it in years and don't actively use the memory recall techniques any more. Close friends reckon I have "the memory of an elephant", I reckon I'm just genetically predisposed. Or something.

                                      But fortunately we have the nanny-state politicians who can step in to protect us poor stupid consumers, most of whom would not know a JVM from a frozen chicken. Bruce Pierson
                                      Because programming is an art, not a science. Marc Clifton
                                      I gave up when I couldn't spell "egg". Justine Allen

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                                      Brady Kelly
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #24

                                      I find phone numbers quite easy, when properly divided into 3 then 2 then 2 digits.

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                                      • H Henry Minute

                                        According to this[^] it is between 1 and 1000 Terabytes (nothing like hedging your bets :) ) but is probably 3. Although I disagree, I calculate it as 3.85 TB. (I have been getting my neurons to number off whilst I was typing this.)

                                        Henry Minute Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?" “I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”

                                        E Offline
                                        E Offline
                                        Euhemerus
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #25

                                        Henry Minute wrote:

                                        According to this[^] it is between 1 and 1000 Terabytes (nothing like hedging your bets Smile ) but is probably 3. Although I disagree, I calculate it as 3.85 TB. (I have been getting my neurons to number off whilst I was typing this.)

                                        LOL. Hmmm, that makes for very interesing reading; thanks for the link. I especially find this bit very useful: "Each synapse possesses a variable firing threshold which is reduced as the neuron is repeatedly activated." This explains to some degree how the act of learning something is achieved. The more something is repeated, the better the connections involved become and hence, it becomes second nature.

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                                        • B Brady Kelly

                                          I find phone numbers quite easy, when properly divided into 3 then 2 then 2 digits.

                                          D Offline
                                          D Offline
                                          Dave Sexton
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #26

                                          That's how I do it to remember the phone number but I also associate the phone number to either a word or number (depending on my mood) so that I can associate them with a person/place. Not unlike PK/FK relationships in RDBMS's.

                                          But fortunately we have the nanny-state politicians who can step in to protect us poor stupid consumers, most of whom would not know a JVM from a frozen chicken. Bruce Pierson
                                          Because programming is an art, not a science. Marc Clifton
                                          I gave up when I couldn't spell "egg". Justine Allen

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