Re: Economy of ideas

On 2 Sep 2006 04:08:47 -0700, "Lars" <LarsFiedler@xxxxxx> wrote:

Economy-Problem
---------------------------

1. Ideas are representations of perceptions. An idea is represented by
multiple neurons.
2. Human thinking is based on assoziativity of ideas.

Most people will agree with these two sentences. But they lead to the
following problem:
Imagine A is an idea that is associated with the ideas B and C.

A ------>B
|
|-------->C

Imagine A is conscious. How does the human brain manage that only B or
C is conscious at a time? How does the human brain manage that not B
or C are both conscious at a time?

There is almost the same problem if you deny that consciousness is
something special. The question is then: How does the human brain
manage that only one action is done at a time?

There must be a biological mechanism that adjusts the number of active
ideas at a time. Has anyone heard of such a biological mechanism? Has
anyone been confronted with this problem in AI-programming? (Note that
A,B,C are not single neurons but representations of ideas.)

The architecture of the brain itself adjusts this. Its not so much a
"mechanism" as it is due to the fact that when you experienced the
idea the first time, your brain was already associating it in the
manner that it would appear again in the future, when you recall it.
Ideas do not come for free, they come only within a context.

In AI programming, the problem of performing only one action at a time
is called "action selection."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_selection

On the other hand, the mechanism you are asking for may be "WORKING
MEMORY" or short-term memory. The front part of the brain behind
your forehead is called the prefrontal cortex. It has connections
going into every part of the brain, and there are connections that
come from the brain into it. This creates a feedback loop between PFC
and "everywhere else". That is exactly how the brain performs working
memory.
.

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