Award-winning author Douglas Fox talks about his cover story in the July issue of Scientific American about The Limits of Intelligence, placed there by the laws of physics
Image: Photograph by Adam Voorhes
Award-winning author Douglas Fox talks about his cover story in the July issue of Scientific American about "The Limits Of Intelligence," placed there by the laws of physics.
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Add Commentperhaps the existing structure has deeper spaces than you may understand or imagine, something like the "curled up" dimensions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRemember article in SA that described brain as more of a stochastic system. Random, quasi-periodic, signals varied across cortex with the amplitude pattern being consistent for given stimulus. The longer white matter axons move information about these patterns between brain regions. On top of this, and parallel to it are signals of glial cells, which spread information in a local neighborhood, and support and direct formation of new synapses. The structure is one which is set up to construct its own software by selecting random cycles of its hardware and comparing them to incoming stimuli, reinforcing those which are effective. The process which would make such a structure more efficient is not simply something like adding more switches. In order to make this structure more efficient it would seem that one should increase the efficiency with which it can form new synapses, increase the efficiency with which the white matter axons can transport patterns between brain regions, and increase the efficiency of the glial cells. Rather than enhancing neurons, enhancing glial cells may be key.
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