[Comp-neuro] Re: Attractors, variability and noise

[Mario Negrello]

> As I understand the  other end of the spectrum, we construct  
> increasingly realistic models and end up with a simulated brain  
> without a real understanding of how it works, which makes no sense  
> to me.  Understanding is what we're after, and that understanding  
> can only reside in the brains of the population of scientists, not  
> in their models.

That is why shared terminology, a shared conceptual frame, becomes so  
crucially important. To the expense that we may have to be extra  
tolerant about the usage of certain concepts, specially in agreeing  
that they are contrivances of the human mind. I think that einstein  
said once (from plato-stanford encyclopedia):

" If you wish to learn from the theoretical physicist anything about  
the methods which he uses, I would give you the following piece of  
advice: Don't listen to his words, examine his achievements. For to  
the discoverer in that field, the constructions of his imagination  
appear so necessary and so natural that he is apt to treat them not as  
the creations of his thoughts but as given realities."

That is true of physicists, and scientists in general. But against  
einstein's admonishment, ' don't listen to his words', one should say,  
listen with caution.