From: mycroftiv@sphericalharmony.com
To: 9fans@9fans.net
Subject: [9fans] Hofstadters ideas for how brains work
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2013 01:58:31 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <485c16ecdf5a693aad952e295d45ef7f@sphericalharmony.com> (raw)
In Gödel Escher Bach by Hofstadter there is a wonderful dialogue
called "Ant Fugue" and it explores the idea of an ant colony as a
conscious mind. Even though each ant is just following
near-mechanical rules, the behavior of the colony as a whole can
exhibit intelligence, and Dr. Anteater explains that even though he
eats ants, he is friends with several ant colonies.
Why not make a group of computers able to work together like an ant
colony, instead of a rigid structure like a grid? Maybe the way to
make computers truly intelligent and flexible is not with more
complexity and higher-level organization, but use Hofstadter's ideas
and work from the bottom up. Just let there be a lot of different
tunnels and chambers (namespaces) and tons of ant trails carrying data
back and forth (mux-pipes) and let it all be free-form and grow however
the little ants want to scurry.
Maybe that would be a good way to build a more flexible computer
system that could evolve toward the same kind of emergent intelligence
that Dr. Anteater described in Douglas Hofstadter's Ant Fugue from GEB.
next reply other threads:[~2013-03-18 1:58 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 2+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2013-03-18 1:58 mycroftiv [this message]
2013-03-18 2:05 ` Kurt H Maier
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