[dorkbotdc-blabber] Bayesian theory of the brain in New Scientist

[Lorne Covington]

Philip Kohn wrote:
> ...  That is one difference between physics and biology,
> evolution is a hacker, it just makes things work without much concern 
> for how complex they are.
>

Absolutely!  It slaps anything together that happens to WORK!  Which is 
why decoding life has been a harder task than quantum physics, and I 
expect truly understanding brain function will be MUCH harder than most 
people expect.  And then there's that thing called consciousness...

In recent years I have been similarly amused with folks (generally 
molecular biologists) realizing they've been misapplying the term "gene" 
to simply mean a stretch of DNA.  The thinking used to be that we just 
had to find the right stretch of DNA that produced this or that trait.  
Nature is much messier than that, and I think neuroscience will hit a 
similar point down the road.  Or two.

Ciao!

- Lorne