Minds are analog?

[Wudang]

From
a Register article (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/02/analog_or_digital/) on whether minds are analog or digital, this memorable quote from Dr Bill Softky,


"Because there is no accepted answer for how the brain works, people can say anything. The threshold for disproving something is higher than the threshold for saying it, which is a recipe for the accumulation of ********"

[Dymanic]

I think this is what is known as a: 'poorly framed problem'.

Steve Grand:

"When it comes to life, we see the analogue/digital distinction disappear completely, to be replaced by the spectrum of forms of encoding it really is. Take a nerve signal: at a theoretical level we can treat an action potential as a differentiated square wave; i.e., a spike of infinitesimal width and infinite height -- the ultimate in digital. But in practice the cell membrane takes a finite time to transit between polarised and depolarised states and so forms a smooth (if sharp) curve -- this is an analogue change (discrete at the quantum level). But then again, there are only two significant states, polarised and depolarised, so we're back to a digital system. And yet what really matters is the choice of encoding scheme, which for the majority of neurons seems to be frequency modulation, and so the true signal is analogue and can vary continuously. Mind you, two spike peaks can only vary in distance by a whole number of molecules, and so this analogue signal is really discrete..."

Reality Club -- Is Life Analog Or Digital? (http://www.edge.org/discourse/analog_digital.html)