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> Moravec hypothesized around his paradox, that the reason for the paradox [that things we perceive as easy b/c we dont think about them are actually hard] coul

> Moravec hypothesized around his paradox, that the reason for the paradox [that things we perceive as easy b/c we dont think about them are actually hard] could be due to the sensor & motor portion of the human brain having had billions of years of experience and natural selection to fine-tune it, while abstract thoughts have had maybe 100 thousand years or less Another gem!

Legend2440 2y ago
Or it could be a parallel vs serial compute thing. Perception tasks involve relatively simple operations across very large amounts of data, which is very easy if you have a lot of parallel processors. Abstract thought is mostly a serial task, applying very complex operations to a small amount of data. Many abstract tasks like evaluating logical expressions cannot be done in parallel - they are in the complexity class P-complete. Your brain is mostly a parallel processor (80 billion neurons operating asynchronously), so logical reasoning is hard and perception is easy. Your CPU is mostly a serial processor, so logical reasoning is easy and perception is hard.
- cratermoon 2y ago
  > Perception tasks involve relatively simple operations across very large amounts of data, which is very easy if you have a lot of parallel processors. Yes, relatively simple. Wait, isn't that exactly what the article explained was completely wrong-headed?
  - burnished 2y ago
    No. The article is talking about things we think of as being easy because they are easy for a human to perform but that are actually very difficult to formalize/reproduce artificially. The person you are responding to is instead comparing differences in biological systems and mechanical systems.
- visarga 2y ago
  > Or it could be a parallel vs serial compute thing. The brain itself is both a parallel system an a serially constrained system. It has distributed activity but it must resolve in a serial chain of action. We can't walk left and right at the same time. Any goals forces us to follow specific steps in specific order. This conflict between parallel processing and serial outputs is where the magic happens.
topherclay 2y ago
> ...the sensor & motor portion of the human brain having had billions of years of experience. It doesn't really change the significance of the quote, but I can't help but point out that we didn't even have nerve cells more than 0.6 billion of years ago.

Legend2440 2y ago

Or it could be a parallel vs serial compute thing. Perception tasks involve relatively simple operations across very large amounts of data, which is very easy if you have a lot of parallel processors. Abstract thought is mostly a serial task, applying very complex operations to a small amount of data. Many abstract tasks like evaluating logical expressions cannot be done in parallel - they are in the complexity class P-complete. Your brain is mostly a parallel processor (80 billion neurons operating asynchronously), so logical reasoning is hard and perception is easy. Your CPU is mostly a serial processor, so logical reasoning is easy and perception is hard.

cratermoon 2y ago
> Perception tasks involve relatively simple operations across very large amounts of data, which is very easy if you have a lot of parallel processors. Yes, relatively simple. Wait, isn't that exactly what the article explained was completely wrong-headed?
- burnished 2y ago
  No. The article is talking about things we think of as being easy because they are easy for a human to perform but that are actually very difficult to formalize/reproduce artificially. The person you are responding to is instead comparing differences in biological systems and mechanical systems.
visarga 2y ago
> Or it could be a parallel vs serial compute thing. The brain itself is both a parallel system an a serially constrained system. It has distributed activity but it must resolve in a serial chain of action. We can't walk left and right at the same time. Any goals forces us to follow specific steps in specific order. This conflict between parallel processing and serial outputs is where the magic happens.

topherclay 2y ago

> ...the sensor & motor portion of the human brain having had billions of years of experience. It doesn't really change the significance of the quote, but I can't help but point out that we didn't even have nerve cells more than 0.6 billion of years ago.