Comment by estearum
8 hours ago
> but being able to generate probabilistic outputs based on inputs is not what makes us intelligent.
???
Of course it is. The brain is mechanically not capable of doing anything other than that.
Do you believe the brain is something other than a bundle of probabilistic physical interactions? Or are brains not the source of what we call intelligence?
May I suggest the excellent & recent book: "The brain. In theory" by Romain Brette?
This is going to elevate your thinking on this no end, if you're interested.
Looks interesting (added to my list, thank you for the recommendation), but not actually relevant to the topic at hand.
We know that the brain is a probabilistic input → output machine because the universe is a probabilistic input → output machine. The brain is made of universe. There are deterministic relationships (which at high sensitivity or complexity become easier to describe as probabilistic), and quantum relationships. That's it. The brain, like every other thing comprised of "universe" is comprised of those two types of relationships.
If Romain's book provides evidence of relationships in the brain that are neither quantum (therefore random) NOR classical (therefore deterministic), then 1) he would have already won at least one Nobel prize, and 2) anyone in this thread would be able to at least gesture toward what relationship that is.
This is a vacuous argument. If everything is a “probabilistic input output machine” then what exactly are you claiming?
You should look into mathematical definitions of probability. You will be surprised to find not all formal mathematical systems can fit inside probability spaces.
You're a fast reader :-D
No quantum bullshittery in there I promise.
Equating "classical" with "deterministic" is however pushing it a bit too far, when no one and nothing can ever do even a very small fraction of said determination...
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We don’t know
Of course we do. Unless the brain is an object unlike anything else in the known universe, then it's an input → output machine.
This deserves about as large of a "[citation needed]" as one could draw. Are you well-studied in neuroscience?
Nothing in the universe is anything other than a chain of reactions, amigo.
The brain is an object in the universe.
The universe has quantum behaviors (fully random, not a source of intelligence) and it has deterministic behaviors (fully non-random). Many of those deterministic behaviors are so complex that they're easier to analyze and describe as probabilistic, which is where most brain input → output relationships land.
Please point to any evidence whatsoever that the brain has some third type of interaction going on that has never been observed anywhere in the entire universe, then we can have a discussion about it.
Its baffling to me that people think the brain is somehow "outside" of the universe and somehow "magic" and not tied down by physics just like any other matter is. I don't understand how people come to this conclusion, except in the case of belief in magic or religion (which is belief in magic more or less).
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Why is the brain probabilistic instead of deterministic?
Probabilistic and deterministic are not opposites.
The brain is deterministic at the level of specific interactions, which process inputs in a highly chaotic (but still deterministic) manner into probabilistic outcomes.
The opposite of deterministic is random, i.e. in the quantum sense of truly no relationship between input and output.
There are probably some quantum effects in the brain here and there, but the vast majority of it is just traditional deterministic interactions networked together in such a complex system that the resulting behavior is much, much easier to predict in probabilistic terms than otherwise.
Ok right, but then I don't see the original point. Or like, you don't seem to be appealing to a hard science/soft science distinction here if the question revolves around what conceptual model is most "useful" to us. Useful for what? For predicting future actions? That makes sense, but does actually that speak to op's (possibly still fraught) metaphysical/semantic point here? It just feels like you are speaking over it, right? They could just as easily counter that a probabilistic model of the physical brain is not a very useful description of human intelligence, so why use it? You can't appeal to materialism here because you are already practicing some implied pragmatism in your commitments. You pretty much have as much ground to stand on as they do!
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Yours is a controversial view. It is lazy and selfish to try to get other people to explain their case that it is not exclusively that, when saying that it is exclusively that is the weaker case, and you back it up with nothing but a snarky proclamation.
Are newly born babies reacting due to statistical probabilities that they have derived, or are they using something other than their brains?
> Are newly born babies reacting due to statistical probabilities that they have derived, or are they using something other than their brains?
The answer is obviously yes lol.
The creature is an assemblage of electrical, chemical, and kinetic relationships.
Watching a baby develop is exactly what you'd expect from a system that's predominantly electrical noise triggering behaviors and then gradually refining denoising the relationship between inputs and outputs, with the goal function of achieving more desirable inputs.
Surely you can at least gesture toward one thing in the brain that appears not to be a probabilistic relationship between input and output?
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