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From: mac@uvacs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.ai
Subject: SISD brains
Message-ID: <1160@uvacs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 8-Feb-84 11:39:11 EST
Article-I.D.: uvacs.1160
Posted: Wed Feb  8 11:39:11 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 10-Feb-84 06:32:13 EST
Lines: 17

On whether the brain is a parallel processor...

This seems like a poorly phrased question.  The brain pretty obviously
doesn't correspond closely to most "conventional" processors, parallel or
otherwise.  You might as well ask whether it uses semaphores or monitors
for synchronization.

Without a good idea of the way the brain works, the question shouldn't be
asked.  It's obviously capable of doing several things at once.  So, for
that matter is any sequential processor -- all the gates operate
concurrently.

Remember, among the koans posted to this group some time ago, the remark
about the novice who asked whether PL/I had all the data types of LISP?

As for using introspection instead of observation -- that's what makes
philosophy of mind different from the experimental sciences.