Re: Is the brain a serial processor?

Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Fri, 10 Sep 1999 07:55:50 -0500

"Robert J. Bradbury" wrote:
>
> > For such diverse tasks it is clear that the brain does operate in
> > parallel. But when it comes to tasks involving similar data items, the
> > brain appears to time-division multiplex, that is, focus its attention
> > on one object at a time so quickly that the conscious mind is not aware
> > of it.
>
> Oh, oh, I think this is Eliezer's, "unconscious congnition" raising
> its ugly head.

No, this is "supporting cognition". A neuron firing is not "unconscious", it's automatic. "Unconscious" implies something that can be either conscious or unconscious; we don't describe rocks as "unconscious" either. Automatic low-level cognition is what lets the brain run without a stack overflow. Unconscious high-level cognition is psychiatric hokum.

Kudos to Dr. Luck for daring to defy the established political correctness of connectionist AI!

-- 
           sentience@pobox.com          Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
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