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When you emulate NES games, you don't emulate all of the atoms in the NES processor, you just go with instruction set and write down some simple aproximation.
by wetpaws 8y ago
When you emulate NES games, you don't emulate all of the atoms in the NES processor, you just go with instruction set and write down some simple aproximation.
You would do the same in biology.
c elegans connectome has about 300 neurons. If you would simulate the neurons on a hardware level it would be enormously complex task, you would have to deal with ion channels and quirky stochastic effects, perhaps even some quantum physics simulation.
The brain of c elegans is insanely complex. The brain structure, on the other hand, is ridiculously simple.
You can just take connection and activation weights and write a simple neural network equivalent in an evening. And it would work about as good as a hardware simulation.
- philipkglass 8y agoYou can just take connection and activation weights and write a simple neural network equivalent in an evening. And it would work about as good as a hardware simulation. Isn't this currently an unsettled question? We don't know if simple approximations of easily observable brain features (like connections) works as well for imitating brains as emulating NES instructions works for imitating the NES. Among other obstacles, we haven't had complete connection maps of large, interesting brains to experiment with. It seems like this fruit fly work may be a stepping stone toward more sophisticated "emulation" experiments.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- short_sells_poo 8y ago> You can just take connection and activation weights and write a simple neural network equivalent in an evening. And it would work about as good as a hardware simulation. I'm under the impression that this is very far from a settled thing. In effect, we don't know whether the stochastic and quantum effects are important or not. Perhaps that is the secret sauce, and it is not possible to approximate it using "crude" mathematical models we use today. Do you have any links to research that supports your idea?
- dekhn 8y agoYour last point is still an open question. It's also not well founded or experimentally accessible.
- vkou 8y ago> You can just take connection and activation weights and write a simple neural network equivalent in an evening. And it would work about as good as a hardware simulation. And yet, nobody has managed to do so, despite years of effort. Why?
- wetpaws 8y agoA lot of people routinely did a simulation of c. elegans. You can find it online on Google.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- flashman 8y agoThis sounds a lot like a cargo cult: copy what you've observed, and wait for the previous result to show up again!