From: Peter C. McCluskey (pcm@rahul.net)
Date: Wed Aug 13 1997 - 23:02:04 MDT
EvMick@aol.com (EvMick@aol.com) writes:
>I beleive that this argument was aired earlier...ie. " A blind man can't
>think?'
Blind men probably use their visual cortices.
There is plenty of room for having one's personality altered by
changes to the visual cortex while still being able to think.
>But that's not the point....provissionally conceded that the visual cortex IS
>needed...but what about that part of the brain that controls how I wrinkle my
>left eyelid...or that part of the brain which controls the secretion of
>sweat....or that portion of the brain that........
Many aspects of the brain are distributed so widely that it isn't
practical with todays technology to do more than guess at how much
change removing a particular part will cause. Most functions have a
fair amount of redundancy so that removing a few pieces will just
cause a slight reduction in clarity of memories, predictability of
normal reactions, etc.
>The point is that, surely, not all the brain is required to support a
>personality....and I suspect that MOST of the brain is NOT required...
It will take a fairly complete understanding of how the brain works
to answer that question. Minsky thinks an AI (I don't think he means
a human one) could be implemented on a 286. I suspect it will take a
lot more than that.
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