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A mechanical neural network learns to respond to its environment

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Re: A mechanical neural network learns to respond to its environment

#7
post #2

I don't understand the advantage of this over just having a digital NN and then pushing the output to some electric motor?

I think you're missing the point. I think it's to demonstrate that fully mechanical systems can learn and react like a real brain plus muscles and sensors.

The possible implication is, if consciousness can arise in a digital neural net, it can also arise in a mechanical system, you just need enough of levers and gears connected in a certain way.

Re: A mechanical neural network learns to respond to its environment

#9
post #2

I don't understand the advantage of this over just having a digital NN and then pushing the output to some electric motor?

It depends on how much koolaid you've drunk.

A NN implemented on a digital computer is a fixed way of varying the electrical field of the CPU (etc.) given (eg.,) an SSD state which produces a fixed way of varying (eg.,) a motor.

This is very (very) far away from adaptive motion at the "tissue" level.

The semi-mystical notion that a NN is a kind of "programming of reality" is false: just as a NN running on a CPU cannot perform nuclear fusion, it likewise, cannot produce material adaptation.

It is an open question whether any non-organic material is adaptive, and I'd bet against it.

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