On Fri, 10 Sep 1999 CurtAdams@aol.com wrote:
> I said:
> >However,
> >the insertion of a neural-net mapping chip that is both "programmable"
> >and has a much higher training rate than normal neurons seems a reasonable
> >solution to this problem.
>
> Ahh, so grow the hand on (say) a pig, with its own nervous system, and then
> put in an interface? Cute idea.
>
Some days reality gets scary... It turns out that this has been
done with prosthetic hands. Testuya Higuchi at the Electrotechnical
Laboratory in Japan (who as it turns out is the boss of Hugo de Garis),
has put the circuits for "evolvable hardware" into the prosthetics
to allow a rapid speedup in training time.
See: Science News Sept. 4, 1999, pg 156-158.
Interestingly enough the article comments on the fact that de Garis has his 72 gate array [= 70 million brain cell or 10,000 500 MHz Pentiums] built but they are having problems figuring out how to connect together the 60,000 circuitry blocks to actually "do something".
Robert