From: Colin Hales (colin@versalog.com.au)
Date: Wed Jan 16 2002 - 01:29:12 MST
>On 1/15/02 6:33 PM, "J. R. Molloy" <jr@shasta.com> wrote:
> We don't *know* yet, because serial processors have yet to
> claim that they are sentient.
You are right - not proven. However, the theoretical side says that any
problem expressible in parallel can be executed serially - it's a question
of execution time.
The question of serial/parallel machine sentience then becomes a matter of
ensuring the execution dynamics remain the same. Neurons and Axons are as
slow as a wet weekend in July (or January, choose your hemisphere). 200
meters per second MAX. Sloppy briny membranes and mexican waves of charge
channel doors opening and closing.
.....Compared to the normal electronics we are used to, of course. The hope
is that the more serial implementations can make up in speed what the brain
does in massive parallelism.
cheers
colin
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