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Made some updates to my post but glad you brought up simulation: today when we simulate the brain, at whatever resolution, we do so in digital systems that have

Made some updates to my post but glad you brought up simulation: today when we simulate the brain, at whatever resolution, we do so in digital systems that have the Von Neumann bottleneck. Processing and memory are separated. In humans and all of biology, these things overlap instead. And that’s where simulations ultimately fail. They are out of step with real time in a way biology is not, because biology is attuned to the environment, and down to the molecular level, is actually enacting a physical process distributed across many cells that track the periodicities in various external signals, then anticipate them.

defrost 2mo ago
Does Danny Hillis' Connection Machine have a von Neumann bottleneck? Do transputer arrays separate processing and memory? When custom silicon is made to speed up LLM behaviour doesn't that operate fully parallel with mixed memory and processing? When real time remote sensing signal processing pipelines are built isn't it possible to parallel in the kinds of filters that "anticipate" the expected future (and highlight deviations from the expected).
- randomImmigrant 2mo ago
  Yes... when these things are done, we can talk. Which is why I said "I believe machines could be made that think". They can be. We just haven't done it yet.
  - defrost 2mo ago
    > Yes. To which question? The Connection Machine CM-2 (1987) has a non von Neumann architecture and mixes memory and processing .. so that's been done, 40 years ago. Anticipating the future in real time remote sensing signal processing pipelines has been about for at least [redacted] decades.
    - randomImmigrant 2mo ago
      > The Connection Machine CM-2 (1987) has a non von Neumann architecture and mixes memory and processing .. so that's been done, 40 years ago. Are you claiming that it therefore thinks? It’s a foray into a different type of computing, and certainly one we need to explore more. But if you’re claiming it is actually thinking, can you point to the data that indicates that? > Anticipating the future in real time remote sensing signal processing pipelines has been about for at least [redacted] decades. Yes the humans anticipate. I’m not sure you’re getting what it means for the anticipation to be built ground up in biology. Every single cell is cycling in anticipation of the coming day, in advance of it. This is the basal dynamics of life. Before you get to “thinking” in the human verbal sense, you have pre-verbal awareness that’s cell deep in every human body, which consists of anticipatory cycling that is seen learning, cell division, metabolism, and so on. What you lack in engineered systems (so far) is that kind of deep anticipatory architecture that goes down to the molecular scale. Maybe we do get to build that. Like I said, I don’t but that we can’t build artificial minds and artificial life. What I’m saying is we’re nowhere close to there.

defrost 2mo ago

Does Danny Hillis' Connection Machine have a von Neumann bottleneck? Do transputer arrays separate processing and memory? When custom silicon is made to speed up LLM behaviour doesn't that operate fully parallel with mixed memory and processing? When real time remote sensing signal processing pipelines are built isn't it possible to parallel in the kinds of filters that "anticipate" the expected future (and highlight deviations from the expected).

randomImmigrant 2mo ago
Yes... when these things are done, we can talk. Which is why I said "I believe machines could be made that think". They can be. We just haven't done it yet.
- defrost 2mo ago
  > Yes. To which question? The Connection Machine CM-2 (1987) has a non von Neumann architecture and mixes memory and processing .. so that's been done, 40 years ago. Anticipating the future in real time remote sensing signal processing pipelines has been about for at least [redacted] decades.
  - randomImmigrant 2mo ago
    > The Connection Machine CM-2 (1987) has a non von Neumann architecture and mixes memory and processing .. so that's been done, 40 years ago. Are you claiming that it therefore thinks? It’s a foray into a different type of computing, and certainly one we need to explore more. But if you’re claiming it is actually thinking, can you point to the data that indicates that? > Anticipating the future in real time remote sensing signal processing pipelines has been about for at least [redacted] decades. Yes the humans anticipate. I’m not sure you’re getting what it means for the anticipation to be built ground up in biology. Every single cell is cycling in anticipation of the coming day, in advance of it. This is the basal dynamics of life. Before you get to “thinking” in the human verbal sense, you have pre-verbal awareness that’s cell deep in every human body, which consists of anticipatory cycling that is seen learning, cell division, metabolism, and so on. What you lack in engineered systems (so far) is that kind of deep anticipatory architecture that goes down to the molecular scale. Maybe we do get to build that. Like I said, I don’t but that we can’t build artificial minds and artificial life. What I’m saying is we’re nowhere close to there.