Plans for a Recall Referee - Brain Theory from a Circuits and Systems Perspective - page 98

Chapter 6
Plans for a Recall Referee

Introduction

It is amazing to think that sophisticated digital processing might be possible
using neurons. Yet it is suggested below that digital processing is indeed possible,
thus avoiding as much as possible a need for inaccurate and error-prone analog
processing. Brain logic, although a good thing, is chiefly asynchronous and there-
fore considerably more complex than computers with central clocks. Central to the
digital concept are simulated qubits operating as controlled toggle switches.
Quite often, it seems, cues are underdetermined, in which case several possible
images will come forth in succession from long-term memory. Returns, assuming
more than one, do not go directly into conscious short-term memory, but are
directed into registers of simulated qubits. Registers, like words, are a logical
concept; the exact physical form of the circuitry remains unimportant.
Each return comes from a word of memory, and moves into a given register of
simulated qubits. In parallel, the registers undergo a calculation of priority.
Suggestions for establishing priorities have been proposed in connection with
artificial intelligence [ 1 , 2 ] and these have been well discussed [ 3 ].
Attributes are assumed to be identified by their position in distributed memory
and this position implies a certain weighting factor for priority. This topic does not
specify the weightings of attributes for a priority calculation, but surely the compu-
tation will contain survival factors, emotional factors, and also sensory intensity
(bright light, loud sound, etc.).
The author assumes a binary weight with N 1 bits (N 1 is a variable, not large; the
following example uses N 1 ¼

3). It is reasonable to assume a higher weight for
attributes that relate to physical danger, for example binary 100. The next highest
could be for emotions, perhaps 010. A lower weight could be for intensities relating
to what was sensed when the memory was created, say 001. To establish a priority
for each image in the simplest possible way, these weights are added (digitally) to
determine priority.