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On the contrary, dendrites/synapses/axons implement something that looks an awful lot like matrix multiplication followed by an activation function. The biggest
by jjoonathan 3y ago
On the contrary, dendrites/synapses/axons implement something that looks an awful lot like matrix multiplication followed by an activation function. The biggest differences between bio and artificial neural networks -- spiking, backpropagation, etc -- seem to be in the non-matmul parts of the story.
- 29athrowaway 3y agoBut it is not matrix multiplication. We want it to be matrix multiplication, we want to use a minimalistic, elegant, reductionist approach, we want to claim we understand it, but in practice it's none of that otherwise we would have a working artificial brain. As we discover things we find those things at work in the brain, but the brain is too advanced for us to make proper sense of it.
- jjoonathan 3y agoWe only understand a small part of a big story, but we do understand that small part and it does look like matrix multiplication. Most of what goes on in the brain is up for debate. But not that part. Incidentally, this is the whole reason why reductionist approaches are so important: without reductionism, you can never get a foothold. You are adrift in a sea of woo and can never make any progress towards understanding because one nonfalsifiable holistic theory is as good as the next. However, if you break the system down into pieces until you do understand a piece, you can start to put the puzzle together. Dendrites, synapses, action potentials, thresholds, potentiation, plasticity -- these things are real, we do understand them under an ever growing set of circumstances, and while the picture on the puzzle is still anyone's guess the corner that looks like matrix multiplication is fully assembled and not going anywhere.
- 29athrowaway 3y agoIt is a straw man.