Information Routing, Correspondence Finding, and Object Recognition in the Brain

Download or read book Information Routing, Correspondence Finding, and Object Recognition in the Brain written by Philipp Wolfrum and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-09-08 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At?rstsight,thisbookisaboutfacerecognitioninthebrain.Itsmorelasting value, however,lies in the paradigmatic way in which this particular problem is treated. From the basic ideas that are worked out here in concrete detail, it is a naturaland simple next step to at leastimagine, if not realizein model form, much more generalstructures and processes,thus helping to bridge the still tremendous chasm between mind and brain. It is the purpose of this foreword to point out these generic traits. For centuries, thinking about the brain has been dominated by the most complexmechanisticdevicesofthetime,clockwork,communicatinghydraulic tubesor,today,thecomputer.Thecomputer,takenasincarnationoftheU- versal Turing Machine, can implement any conceivable process, so that also a functional brain can surely be simulated on it, an idea that, beginning in the ?fties of the last century, has been seducing scientists to create “art- cial intelligence” in the computer. As a result we now have an information technology that displays many functional capabilities formerly regarded as the exclusive domain of the mind. As fascinating as this is, doting on “int- ligent machines” is systematically diverting our attention awayfrom the true problems of understanding the working of the brain.