[ExI] Bell's Inequality

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On 30 November 2016 at 19:12, Stuart LaForge <avant at sollegro.com> wrote:

Stathis wrote:
> <I choose coffee rather than tea because the coffee-choosing neurons fire,
> and the coffee decision comes out; my washing machine chooses the spin
> cycle rather than the wash cycle because its spin cycle-choosing relay
> fires and spin cycle comes out.>
>
> I think you are underselling the brain here. While at the exact moment
> that the choice happens, the washing machine's act of decision and your
> act share a certain similarity, the processes by which the two reached
> those decisions are vastly different.
>
> The washing machine was following a very simple mechanical program and,
> barring unforeseen mechanical failure would have always chosen the spin
> cycle at that step of the program.
>
> Your brain, on the other hand, not only has coffee neurons firing but also
> has the tea neurons, soda neurons, beer neurons all firing. Your brain may
> or may not have thirst neurons firing, and a whole host of inhibitory
> signals firing such as the "it's too hot for coffee" or the "it's too
> early for beer" neurons. So all these neurons are firing, and some of
> these signals are building each other up while other signals are knocking
> them down.
>
> So you have this competition between sets of cooperating neurons
> representing different choices and contraints having a cacophonic tug of
> war for the future. Then suddenly in a flash, the decision is made, and a
> function in multi-dimensional probability space collapses down to a single
> point . . . Coffee.


The difference between the brain and washing machine is only one of
complexity. The washing machines of the future may be able to analyse the
washing load, take into account multiple variables such as the time of the
day and the week, the weather, the number of people in the household and
their likely activity, and then make a decision on type and timing of wash
cycle. This decision may be impossible to predict; as with the brain, you
just have to run it and see what happens.


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou
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