01 Dec Robot Neurons: Analog versus Digital
Digital is basically black and white: 1 is yes and 0 is no or vice-versa. Yet our world is full of other colors. We can efficiently use digital devices to stretch arbitrary numbers of 1’s and 0’s together to represent a virtually infinite degree of possible values. Yet there are places where exactly two values may […]
12 Nov Context Powers Backward Chaining Logic
A popular success strategies book suggests that if we “Begin with the End in Mind” we are likely to get where we’re going more consistently. We wander less if we think about what we want at the end from the very first steps of our journeys. Context helps us do that. Human behaviorists and philosophers have […]
10 Nov Seeking a Universal Theory of Knowledge
As a fundamental premise for this post, this blog as a whole, and my life’s work, I propose that language and “real world knowledge” are inextricably connected, and neither functions well without the other. This is why, in my opinion, natural language processing (NLP) initiatives focusing exclusively, or even primarily on language structure have significant […]
05 Nov Evolution of Language
Evolution of Language Did humans become smart by necessity? With the forces of nature combined to rig the test for “survival of the fittest”, as human evolution from lower forms, how did these ill-equipped creatures, with their weak jaws and thin hides, make the natural-selection cut? It sounds like it was a perilous journey. One […]
19 Oct Think Before You Speak?
How closely is your brain connected to your mouth? Please don’t answer that. I want to blog about it for awhile so hold the thought. There is a bunch of electrical activity in the brain around organizing concepts into context, and a bunch more around putting your thoughts into words. This organizing and putting may […]
18 Sep Context is King Indeed
There are many important innovations adding context to business processes and data to make information access, collaboration and analysis more effective. I just read another great perspective on context in collaboration showing how taxonomies add value to teams of knowledge workers. Adding context is especially needed in moving toward the knowledge enterprise. I contend that […]
15 Sep What is Inside Neurons?
Intracellular Structure of Neurons In earlier posts, we examined the brain, its areas, and the types of neurons that populate the different layers of some of the brain’s areas. In this post and more to follow, we will turn up the magnification and look a little deeper. What can be seen inside the cells? What […]
07 Sep Quest for the Knowledge Enterprise
Do you need a Private Eye? As an Intelligence Professional, my mission was to seek out information that others were trying to conceal. Do you ever feel like that is too often your task when trying to find the answers to life’s persistent questions, or even something you need to buy? In an enterprise, those answers […]
06 Sep Varieties of Neural Circuits in the Cerebellum
The Cerebellum In this post we explore the roles and varieties of neural circuits of the cerebellum in motor control and the maintenance of life-support systems. The layers of the cerebellum have different cell populations, and the types of cells have radically different forms. Three main points will be made today: the morphology of cells and layers […]
05 Sep Brain Form and Function
Functional Morphology I’ve addressed questions related to modeling form, function and process in an earlier post. Today’s post drills down in some specific areas to point out some important connections between form and function that could contribute to engineering systems that more accurately model the human brain. Paul Churchland suggests that many AI initiatives have […]