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From: dap@ihopa.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.ai
Subject: Re: parallel processing in the brain
Message-ID: <153@ihopa.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 6-Feb-84 22:58:33 EST
Article-I.D.: ihopa.153
Posted: Mon Feb  6 22:58:33 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 9-Feb-84 13:24:08 EST
References: <16416@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 25

If you consider pattern recognition in humans when constrained to strictly
sequential processing, I think we are MUCH slower than computers.

In other words, how long do you think it would take a person to recognize
a letter if he could only inquire as to the grayness levels in different
pixels?  Of course, he would not be allowed to "fill in" a grid and then
recognize the letter on the grid.  Only a strictly algorithmic process
would be allowed.

The difference here, as I see it, is that the human mind DOES work in
parallel.  If we were forced to think sequentially abour each pixel in out
field of vision, we would become hopelessly bogged down.  It seems to me
that the most likely way to simulate such a process is to have a HUGE
number of VERY dumb processors in a heirarchy of "meshes" such that some
small number of processors in common localities in a low level mesh would
report their findings to a single processor in the next higher level mesh.
This processor would do some very quick, very simple calculations and pass
its findings on the the next higher level mesh.  At the top level, the
accumulated information would serve to recognize the pattern.  I'm really
speaking off the top of my head since I'm no AI expert.  Does anybody know if
such a thing exists or am I way off?

Darrell Plank
BTL-IH
ihopa!dap