Connectionists: How the brain works

[Yu Shan]

> Suppose that one gave all in this connectionists list a largely correct
> model about how the brain works, few on this list would be able to
> understand it let alone agree with it!
>

Let's look at a recent example. Nikolic proposed his theory
(http://www.danko-nikolic.com/practopoiesis/) about how the brain
works a few weeks ago to the Connectionists. Upon finishing reading
this paper, I was quite exited. The theory is elegantly simple and yet
has great explanatory power. It is also consistent with what we know
about evolution as well as the brain's organization and development.
Of course, we don't know yet if it is a "largely correct model about
how the brain works". But, to my opinion, it has a great potential.
Actually I am thinking how to implement those ideas in my own future
research.

However, the author's efforts of introducing this work to the
Connectionists received little attention. Connectionists reach 5000+
people, who are probably the most interested and capable audience for
such a topic. This makes the silence particularly intriguing. Of
course, one possible reason is that lots of people here already
studied this theory and deemed it irrelevant.

But a more likely reason, I think, is most people did not give it much
thought. If that is the case, it raises an interesting question: what
is the barrier that a theory of how the brain works need to overcome
in order to be treated seriously? In other words, what do we really
want to know?

Shan Yu, Ph.D
Brainnetome Center and National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition
Institute of Automation Chinese Academy of Sciences
Beijing 100190, P. R. China
http://www.brainnetome.org/en/shanyu