<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><div style="orphans: auto; widows: auto;"><span style="orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">An interesting point has been made off list with respect to the squid and the mammalian retina. Given their remarkable structural similarity, maybe from a computational point of view, it is irrelevant which way the thing points. </span></div><div style="orphans: auto; widows: auto;"><span style="orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;"><br></span></div><div style="orphans: auto; widows: auto;"><span style="orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">I think an argument can be made for that point of view if you are interested in building a physical device. However, if your primary objective is to understand how the nervous system is ‘engineered’, then, clearly, as pointed out nicely by Barak, there are additional constraints that one needs to take into account. </span></div><div style="orphans: auto; widows: auto;"><span style="orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;"><br></span></div><div style="orphans: auto; widows: auto;"><span style="orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">One big one likely, is that it costs biology to be inefficient - brains can’t simply burn fossil fuels. Of course, probably a bad idea that we do to run our inefficient machines. Another reason to pay attention to biology I would say.</span></div><div style="orphans: auto; widows: auto;"><span style="orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;"><br></span></div><div style="orphans: auto; widows: auto;"><span style="orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;">Jim </span></div><div style="orphans: auto; widows: auto;"><span style="orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2;"><br></span></div><div apple-content-edited="true"><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(149, 0, 4);">Dr. James M. Bower Ph.D.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Professor of Computational Neurobiology</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: rgb(66, 0, 168);">Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">15355 Lambda Drive</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">University of Texas Health Science Center </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">San Antonio, Texas 78245</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Phone: 210 382 0553</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Email: <a href="mailto:bower@uthscsa.edu">bower@uthscsa.edu</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Web: <a href="http://www.bower-lab.org">http://www.bower-lab.org</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">twitter: superid101<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">linkedin: Jim Bower<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: rgb(177, 89, 19);">CONFIDENTIAL NOTICE:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: rgb(177, 89, 19);">The contents of this email and any attachments to it may be privileged or contain privileged and confidential information. 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