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    On 13/09/2012 14:53, Stefano Vaj wrote:
    <blockquote
cite="mid:CAPoR7a4Jn+GDP1X1N2E9AgCGaHFvFRy=sLzYORLZaShrQpGqwg@mail.gmail.com"
      type="cite">Sure, adjacent nodes and modules will speak more often
      and much faster to one another than polar opposed ones. <br>
      <br>
      But I suspect this to be true also in existing organic brains and
      networks.<br>
    </blockquote>
    <br>
    Typical time delays in a human brain is a few milliseconds at most
    for nearby synaptic transmission, up to a hundred in some
    frontal-brainstem circuits (where speed is probably not important).<br>
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</style><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Axonal_conduction_delays">http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Axonal_conduction_delays</a> <br>
    And yes, most connectivity is local within the same cortical column,
    with a sparse (but small-world) network of column-column axons. <br>
    <br>
    For a human brain-like architecture, the ratio of local processing
    (~1 ms) to transmission delays (0.10 m / 100 m/s = ~1 ms) is about
    unity (give or take an order of magnitude). If the transmission
    delays are longer the local processing needs to slow down for the
    system to work. So if you have a speedup of the upload by a factor
    S, the maximum distance to remote processors has to be 300*F km
    (assuming lightspeed comms). <br>
    <br>
    There is no reason to think other kinds of useful minds would not
    have different ratios. A more naturally multitasking mind might have
    a hierarchical structure of smaller, somewhat localised subsystems
    and a slower less local supersystem. This could continue several
    levels, producing a slow (compared to the smallest scale processors)
    broad mind/society. Incidentally, this is why I am not entirely
    convinced about the "fast procesisng implies distances get too large
    for communications" argument - top-level entities might be so slow
    that they find the universe small. <br>
    <br>
    <br>
    <br>
    <br>
    <pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University </pre>
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