RE: neuro-discussion

From: MORRIS VILLARROEL <[email protected]>
Date: Thu 07 May 1998 - 16:05:31 CEST

Dear fis collegues,

I am a Canadian biologist (temporarily a visiting researcher in Spain) and
have recently discovered your WWW pages and mailing list. May I be so bold
as to comment on the points suggested for the fis neuro-discussion?
(Thankyouin advance).

I agree with the comments and questions about neurons and the origin of
nervous systems raised by Dr. Marijuan (the molecular basis of
multicellularity have always fascinated me), but it is very difficult to
venture an answer --perhaps we have not advanced that much in these topics
over the last decades.

However, about BEHAVIORAL EMERGENCE (point 4), I believe that the
separation suggested between structure and function (their "optimization")
is not so clear. To begin to analyze variational principles about the
emergence of adaptive behavior we must first consider formal hypothesis
testing in closed (laboratory) systems of animal behavior.

I mean, it is not only the minimization (or optimization) of an overall
"computational energy" in an artificial neural network, as seems to be
suggested by Pedro in point 3, but the analysis of an ETHOLOGICALLY
complete episode of behavioral exchange which emerges within the
environment. What might emerge is perhaps something similar to a "fractal"
decomposition (hierarchy?) of information processing operations --arranged
in very variable configurations depending on specific niches.

OK, I will be short as I do not want to overdo my first contribution to
these discussions.
Thank you for your patience considering these lines from a novice in
Information Science.

Morris Villarroel

Morris@santandersupernet.com
Received on Thu May 7 16:03:12 1998

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