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Started by John Wilson
Tue, 22 Dec 1992 15:35
Speculation on the mind's data structures
Author: John Wilson
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 15:35
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 15:35
230 lines
10395 bytes
10395 bytes
The Minds Eye
This is speculation on the mechanics of data structures used
by minds to think. From what I have read, memory and processing
elements of the mind are interspersed and show confusing signs of
locality of reference combined with global knowledge. Compactness
and massive parallel processing are also remarked upon in the
literature. Data seems to reside in general areas, not in any
specific spot. I am speculating that these traits can be explained
by an encoding scheme which creates an eye's viewpoint.
What if the mind consists of a virtual space full of four
dimensional objects. How would the information which defines this
space be stored? How would processing elements look into this space?
How would objects be manipulated? Four dimensional objects would
consist of three spacial dimensions and one time dimension. How would
the time dimension be handled?
Four dimensions are hard to experiment with, so most of my work
has been done in two dimensions with the expectation that it scales
upwards. The experiments consisted of creating a one dimensional
array from a two dimensional space which could be both stored and
manipulated by parallel processing elements (PE's). In figure 1
sensor readings are given that a point of light would have at various
distances. The value 6561 was chosen to make the numbers work out
nicely. At a distance of 0 one sensor would be affected and it would
receive all the light. At a distance of 8 seventeen sensors would be
affected and would show a normal distribution of values adding up to
6561.
Figures 2, 5, and 8 are diagrams which are converted to vectors
in figures 3, 6, and 9 respectively. These vectors are converted to
bar charts in figures 4, 7, and 10. The 50 element vectors hold
information about a 450 point space. As the dimensions go up the
compaction ratio also goes up. If the space is too crowded then
information access becomes more difficult. Adding or removing points
is accomplished by adding or subtracting appropriate values from
figure 1 to a substring of the vector. Rotation of an object requires
addition and subtraction of constants to bring some points closer while
moving others away. Comparisions would be done by comparing
substrings of vectors and might involve rotation or movement in the
virtual space.
Here are my speculative answers to my speculative questions!
The information which defines the virtual space is stored as one
dimensional vectors representing a viewpoint into the space. PE's
look into this space by finding and processing subvectors. These
subvectors contain the information about the points the PE's are
interested in. Objects are manipulated by adding and subtracting
values from appropriate subvectors. The time dimension would be
handled by keeping old copies of the current vectors. Copies could be
reduced in size to save space. This would cause some information to
be lost.
FIGURE 1
0 6561
1 2187 2187 2187
2 729 1458 2187 1458 729
3 243 729 1458 1701 1458 729 243
4 81 324 810 1296 1539 1296 810 324 81
5 27 135 405 810 1215 1377 1215 810 405 135 27
6 9 54 189 450 810 1134 1269 1134 810 450 189 54 9
7 3 21 84 231 483 798 1071 1179 1071 798 483 231 84 21 3
8 1 8 36 112 266 504 784 1016 1107 1016 784 504 266 112 36 8 1
FIGURE 2
9 * * * * *
8
7 * * * *
6
5
4
3
2
1
FIGURE 3
242 506 786 1052 1277 1452 1569 1604 1525 1347
1144 1016 1005 1074 1151 1206 1266 1368 1503 1611
1641 1584 1476 1361 1284 1275 1334 1417 1455 1417
1331 1257 1221 1214 1221 1254 1319 1380 1369 1261
1107 1004 999 1053 1067 972 768 517 291 123
FIGURE 4
. ...
... ...
.... ..... .
.... ..... ... .
..... ....... ..... ...
...... ................ .....
...... .........................
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FIGURE 5
9
8 *
7 *
6 *
5 *
4 *
3 *
2 *
1
FIGURE 6
104 265 507 805 1100 1338 1499 1582 1584 1499
1372 1284 1301 1366 1380 1290 1218 1260 1404 1512
1548 1620 1701 1674 1566 1539 1782 1782 1458 1458
1701 2187 1458 729 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
FIGURE 7
.
.. .
.. .. ..
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FIGURE 8
9
8
7 * *
6 * * * *
5 * * * * * *
4 * * * * * * *
3 * * * *
2 *
1
FIGURE 9
1080 2646 4941 5589 6111 5940 6696 6822 6804 6129
5913 5790 6042 5889 5730 5505 5550 5661 5715 6024
6453 7209 7329 7002 5868 4728 3447 2367 1383 699
285 93 21 3 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
FIGURE 10
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................................
Best regards
John Wilson
Re: Speculation on the mind's data structures
Author: Gene Golovchinsky
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1992 20:54
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1992 20:54
12 lines
1124 bytes
1124 bytes
I fail to understand how your formalism is related to the mind. What are the dimensions and light for? I think you have to explore the cognitive psychology literature to relate your notation to more traditional ways of talking about the mind. Be careful about unsubstantiated claims, however. Producing the output of a single mental process does not allow you to make the claim of modelling the mind, much as rolling a wheel down an incline does allow you to claim that you've modelled (in a useful way!) the space shuttle. Gene Golovchinsky University of Toronto Human Factors
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