The Homunculus Device

2020-10-31

The Homunculus Device reveals a future world brought back from the edge of disaster through a scientific discovery that changes the course of human history.

Author: Jack Harter

Publisher: Bookbaby

ISBN: 1636255132

Category:

Page: 190

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The Homunculus Device reveals a future world brought back from the edge of disaster through a scientific discovery that changes the course of human history. Set against the backdrop of a love story, an elaborate plan to share the secrets behind the 'Homunculus Device' with eminent science journalists--and the world--leads to an exciting journey through crime, betrayal and ultimately redemption.

Dismantling the Memory Machine

2012-12-06

Since the trace theory requires a retrieval device, and since the retrieval device requires a homunculus to operate it, I conclude that trace theory is a fruitless attempt at a scientific, or causal, explanation of memory.

Author: H.A. Bursen

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

ISBN: 9789400998858

Category: Science

Page: 170

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The subject of the following study is theories of memory. The first part is a study of one broad type of theory which is very widely adhered to at this time. It enjoys great popularity among neuro physiologists, neuropsychologists, and, more generally, among scientifically oriented people who have directed their attention to questions about memory. Further, this way of looking at the matter is not confined to scientific professionals. Indeed, we can find popularized versions of the view in magazines like Time and Reader's Digest. So in the first part of the book, I will give a presentation of the view in its general form. The theory will be presented in such a way as to reveal the features which make it tempting, which make it seem to be a very natural way to explain the phenomena of memory. (And, clearly, from the number of adherents the view has won, it is tempting, and it does seem to be to go about explaining memory. ) After setting forth a natural way this generalized version of the theory, I will next present material by various authors who hold this view. This will allow the reader to get some idea of the different forms which the theory (the 'memory trace' or 'engram' theory) takes. The last step is a critic ism of the theory. In the second part of the book, the attack on trace theory will be strengthened by a further criticism.

Machinery of the Mind

2011-11-16

To see how this might work, imagine a machine (or neural structure) that is capable of recognizing the word “homunculus.” This device receives signals from a battery of simpler devices that are each designed to detect the presence of a ...

Author: George Johnson

Publisher: Crown

ISBN: 9780307799395

Category: Computers

Page: 336

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Machinery of Mind is a full-scale, indispensable examination of the history, content, politics, and philosophy of Artificial Intelligence. In detail, consecutively but with a keen awareness of the interdisciplinary nature of the field, Johnson traces the history of the burgeoning science from its earliest practitioners to corporation-funded engineers and experts: Roger Schank, Terry Winograd, Doug Lenat and others who are struggling to create machines that can actually think independently, going beyond man-made programs and "games." Johnson presents the counterarguments of some theorists that intelligence is less than soul and that the "new science" moves arrogantly into dangerous territory. Necessarily inconclusive, this fascinating study is clear, comprehensive, richly detailed, and endlessly provocative.

Applications of Closed cycle Cryocoolers to Small Superconducting Devices

1978

This ordering of projection areas is called the " sensory homunculus " . D. Brenner , J. Lipton , L. Kaufman and S.J. Williams on have observed a somatically evoked field by applying a mild , repetitive , electrical stimulus to the ...

Author: United States. National Bureau of Standards

Publisher:

ISBN: UCR:31210025449925

Category: Refrigeration and refrigerating machinery

Page: 251

View: 942

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House of Suns

2009-12-10

He fired his own weapons against the Homunculus device and its escort vehicles, not with any obvious expectation of doing harm, but in the hope of goading it into a response. His drive emissions became noisier: Hesperus could have been ...

Author: Alastair Reynolds

Publisher: Hachette UK

ISBN: 9780575097889

Category: Fiction

Page: 480

View: 140

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A spectacular, large-scale space opera - the ultimate galaxy-spanning adventure Six million years ago, at the very dawn of the starfaring era, Abigail Gentian fractured herself into a thousand male and female clones: the shatterlings. Sent out into the galaxy, these shatterlings have stood aloof as they document the rise and fall of countless human empires. They meet every two hundred thousand years, to exchange news and memories of their travels with their siblings. Campion and Purslane are not only late for their thirty-second reunion, but they have brought along an amnesiac golden robot for a guest. But the wayward shatterlings get more than the scolding they expect: they face the discovery that someone has a very serious grudge against the Gentian line, and there is a very real possibility of traitors in their midst. The surviving shatterlings have to dodge exotic weapons while they regroup to try to solve the mystery of who is persecuting them, and why - before their ancient line is wiped out of existence, forever.

The Third God

2010-07-31

'Even if a single device remains intact, it should be possible to achieve a link.' Carnelian realized he had seen no sign of a heliograph. 'Where are these devices?' Even as Legions' homunculus was murmuring an echo to these words ...

Author: Ricardo Pinto

Publisher: Random House

ISBN: 9781407095455

Category: Fiction

Page: 868

View: 116

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Amidst the massacre he himself helped bring about, Carnelian is now desperate to find a way to avoid more carnage. But it is too late for that. His spurned lover, Osidian, seeking revenge and determined to win back his stolen throne, has deliberately stoked the wrath of the Masters who rule the world from its centre, Osrakum. Osidian's actions have stirred into motion political events in Osrakum which threaten to overturn the millennial repressive order of the Commonwealth. Carnelian learns that he and those he loves are now inextricably enmeshed in the terrible power game of the Masters. If he and they are to survive, he has no choice but to play that game himself, though he does not know how. He has no choice but to stand with Osidian in defiance of the invincible power of the Masters. No choice but to take his loved ones deeper into peril. In his struggle he will find unlooked-for allies and guidance with dreadful motives of its own. And ultimately, he will unleash apocalyptic forces which will bring him and his world to a reckoning none could have forseen, though it has been simmering for four thousand years.

The Mechanical Mind

2015-12-22

Each box in the flow chart represents a step performed by the machine. But some of these steps can be broken ... Imagine each task in the flow chart's boxes being performed by a little man, or 'homunculus'. The biggest box (labelled ...

Author: Tim Crane

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 9781317331797

Category: Philosophy

Page: 206

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How can the human mind represent the external world? What is thought, and can it be studied scientifically? Should we think of the mind as a kind of machine? Is the mind a computer? Can a computer think? Tim Crane sets out to answer these questions and more in a lively and straightforward way, presuming no prior knowledge of philosophy or related disciplines. Since its first publication, The Mechanical Mind has introduced thousands of people to some of the most important ideas in contemporary philosophy of mind. Crane explains the fundamental ideas that cut across philosophy of mind, artificial intelligence and cognitive science: what the mind–body problem is; what a computer is and how it works; what thoughts are and how computers and minds might have them. He examines different theories of the mind from dualist to eliminativist, and questions whether there can be thought without language and whether the mind is subject to the same causal laws as natural phenomena. The result is a fascinating exploration of the theories and arguments surrounding the notions of thought and representation. This third edition has been fully revised and updated, and includes a wholly new chapter on externalism about mental content and the extended and embodied mind. There is a stronger emphasis on the environmental and bodily context in which thought occurs. Many chapters have been reorganised to make the reader’s passage through the book easier. The book now contains a much more detailed guide to further reading, and the chronology and the glossary of technical terms have also been updated. The Mechanical Mind is accessible to anyone interested in the mechanisms of our minds, and essential reading for those studying philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, or cognitive psychology.

Historical and Conceptual Issues in Psychology

2009

Warren McCulloch ( 1899-1969 ) : American neurophysiologist , famous for his sugges- tion that the brain can be seen as a Turing machine . Start of neural network research . homunculus word ( meaning ' lit- tle man ' ) used ...

Author: Marc Brysbaert

Publisher: Pearson Education

ISBN: 0273718185

Category: Psychology

Page: 548

View: 101

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Written in a lively and engaging style, this book is richly illustrated and unique in its presentation of historical and conceptual ideas. It focuses on how political, religious, social, and intellectual changes have affected views on the universe, Earth, and mankind.

Perception as Bayesian Inference

1996-09-13

12.6.5 Consciousness and the social role of the homunculus So far the tasks considered for taking over from the homunculus are ones that ... The homunculus looking at the image is a little man, not just an information processing device.

Author: David C. Knill

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

ISBN: 9781316582527

Category: Computers

Page:

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Bayesian probability theory has emerged not only as a powerful tool for building computational theories of vision, but also as a general paradigm for studying human visual perception. This 1996 book provides an introduction to and critical analysis of the Bayesian paradigm. Leading researchers in computer vision and experimental vision science describe general theoretical frameworks for modelling vision, detailed applications to specific problems and implications for experimental studies of human perception. The book provides a dialogue between different perspectives both within chapters, which draw on insights from experimental and computational work, and between chapters, through commentaries written by the contributors on each others' work. Students and researchers in cognitive and visual science will find much to interest them in this thought-provoking collection.

Working Memory and Thinking

2004-08-02

Alternatively, Baddeley (1986; Baddeley and Della Sala, 1996) has argued that the homunculus offers a theoretical holding device, serving as a means to wrap up the executive functions within a general conceptual framework, ...

Author: Kenneth Gilhooly

Publisher: Psychology Press

ISBN: 9781135471897

Category: Psychology

Page: 173

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Thinking and memory are inextricably linked. However, a "divide and rule" approach has led cognitive psychologists to study these two areas in relative isolation. With contributions from some of the leading international researchers on working memory and thinking, the present volume aims to break down the scientific divisions and foster scientific integration in the connections between these two core functions of cognition. Broadly defined, thinking comprises mentally driven change in current representations. The processes involved in such change include application of logical rules, heuristics, problem solving strategies, decision making, planning and comprehension of complex material. Memory involves the encoding, retention and retrieval of information, and the retention may be temporary or in a long-term knowledge base.; Thinking cannot occur in a vacuum; it relies on the long-term memory base and a temporary mental workspace. Despite the apparent limitations on mental workspace, humans can drive a car and hold a conversation, or store partial solutions while tackling other aspects of a problem. So too, some aspects of thinking are relatively resilient in the face of quite extensive brain damage, yet other aspects are remarkably vulnerable to neuroanatomical insults. Humans can solve complex problems with many alternative choice points and yet seem to be able to consider only a few hypotheses at any one time. These apparent paradoxes present significant scientific challenges as to how humans can be such successful thinkers despite their very limited working memory. The chapters herein represent a diversity of views as regards the nature or working memory and forms of human thinking. The links between working memory and thinking are directly addressed and made explicit, and in so doing this volume offers an increasingly integrated understanding of human thinking and memory.

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