Safe optimization

[Steven Ryan]

>> [...] When neurons form new connections (and they do)
>>is according to a predetermined plan or is it response from the environment==
>>does the brain have a finite number of discrete states?

correction:  a bounded number of discrete states.

>Finite number of braincells, each makes only a finite number of
>connections during its' liftime (planned or otherwise, I don't care)
>=> finite number of available states => your ``=='' s.b. ``!=''

You need to be able to prove that the total number of states is bounded by
a specific number. Simply stating finite neurons making finite connections
ignores the quality of the connections. Neurons are not silicon chips but
complex organic cells. It takes more than an assertion they can be modelled
with sufficient accuracy by a discrete process.

The constraints of formal systems are
    - fixed number of discrete states.
    - finite number of discrete state transistions.
    - discrete storage in a fixed alphabet.

>>>all realizable material devices are discrete.  There are no such things
>>>as continuous devices (at least in this universe).
>>
>>What, no four dimensional space-time continuum?
>
>Irrelevant.  Total number of atoms is finite.

Therefore a finite number of particles, virtual or otherwise. Therefore a
finite bound on the number of spontaneously created and destroyed particle.
Therefore a finite number of interconnections, that is a finite number of
paths through the continuum.