[Lore Discussion] Commanders' Genders and the use of "He".

Oh ya. I erm.. Clearly I was overtired, sorry.

You know, I'm not convinced that organic brains actually do run on binary logic, so I'm not sure that a sentience written with current computing languages would be fully possible.

The brain runs on memristor logic. The short version is that the more a path gets used, the stronger the connection becomes and the more it is used. We think analog, not digital

Thanks XD

But the signals themselves are still digital, no? Doesn't that just affect the threshold needed for neurons to fire, and is it considered binary or analog if that's the case?
I'm no biology nut, so I'm just kinda wondering here.

no.

In a computer, a signal is an electric current that is either "low" (near total absence of current, but can have a small "leak" current) or "high" (order of magnitude or more current difference to "low").

In a brain, a signal is a cascade of Na+ ions being pumped out, charging the cell. If this reaches a synapse, the synapse creates signal carriers that move to the next neuron and trigger another cascade of Na+. AFAIK, this charge needs to surpass 1.3V to be considered a "high" signal. The charge itself, however, can be 1.4, or 1.5 or, 1.301V or whatever. So it's not "digital".

Furthermore, memory is shaped by these cascades triggering more and more easily the more and more often it is triggered. Therefore, at some point a certain input will trigger the easiest chain of Na+ cascades along a certain line and thus create an output.

While you can obviously calculate and model this in binary, the function of memristors AFAIK only works in analog systems.

EDIT:

the difference in analog/digital comes from a layer of approximation. A memristor "remembers" the last state of current flowing through it, so the resistance in a direction is lowered if current ran through that direction before. Therefore, the memristor effect can only work in analog terms because otherwise you have a device magically switching at an arbitrary point.

Thanks for the explanation. I think this is what puzzled me, since "fire / don't fire" is a boolean operation based on analog values.