Message-Id: <199910101107.HAA11021@smtp7.atl.mindspring.net>
Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 07:15:43 -0400
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: bbenzon@mindspring.com (Bill Benzon)
Subject: Re: implied or inferred memes
>
>The holographic memory concept provides a model for storage, but leaves
>the question of 'processing' untouched.
Mark--Not really. But you should do some reading if you really want to
pursue this. Pribram's (1971) book would be a good place to start, though
it's probably out of print. The notion has been explored by Christopher
Longuet-Higgins and his collection of essays, _Mental Processes: Studies in
Cognitive Science_ (MIT 1987) has several articles on the subject; it is
still available. As you may know, there is quite a bit of research on
using holographic technology for computer memory; you might what to check
that out--see two articles by Psaltis below.
One thing that makes neural holography so attractive is that holographic
memories can be made content-addressable, thereby taking care of items 2,3,
and 4 on your list. In the brain the cerebral cortex is the memory medium.
The cortex is parcelled into a number of neurofunctional areas (such as
Broca's area), each having unique patterns of input and output. Input
comes into a cortical NFA in parallel and is, for all practical purposes,
presented to all processing units (columns of 80-100 neurons perpendicular
to the cortical surface) in parallel. The NFA as a whole outputs the
stored pattern which most closely matches the input pattern. assuming that
there is one that is within tolerance. If there is not stored pattern that
is a close match, then the current input pattern is learned as a new
pattern.
>
>Using the Turning machine as a simple model, one needs:
>
>1. a memory media (tape),
>2. data reading capacity,
>3. data writing capacity,
>4. the ability to access specific locations in the memory media and
>5. a fundamental instruction set. Part of the instruction set is the
>ability to differentiate between 'data' and 'commands' on the memory
>media.
>
Bill B
Abu-Mostafa, Y. & Psaltis, D. (1987) Optical Neural Computers. Scientific
American, 256, 3, pp. 88-95.
Pribram, K. (1971) Languages of the Brain. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Psaltis, D. & Mok, F. (1995) Holographic Memories. Scientific American 273,
5, pp. 70-76.
Yevick, Miriam Lipschutz (1975) Holographic or Fourier logic. Pattern
Recognition 7: 197-213. This is an important theoretical piece that hasn't
gotten the attention it deserves.
William L. Benzon 201.217.1010
708 Jersey Ave. Apt. 2A bbenzon@mindspring.com
Jersey City, NJ 07302 USA http://www.newsavanna.com/wlb/
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