Selvedges
Notes for a Connectionist Manifesto
A spectre haunts the nervous system
Thumb and index tweak a steel knob as the century grinds to a start.
The synaptic cleft gapes on the microscope stage. Sweeping theories
full of subtle fluids drain away into this gap whereby each neuron stands
alone, tending its own fire. Mind appears to halt at this abyss.
Where can it go? Where can it have come from? Zoom in.
Cell wall cliffs recede and grow tall. Crossing between, fleet
one-way birds, the neurotransmitters flock at intervals
to roost in the far receptors. Zoom out. Later, farther on,
muscles cannot choose but twitch, driving volition deeper into hiding.
Pan to brain. Song, love and all of physics thrive in such thickets.
What the neuron knows
Mapping inputs in
n
dimensions
Edge extraction in real time
The role of the dark in motion pictures
The signature of time ablaze in the tissues
Selvage
Solving systems of simultaneous constraints
Copyright 1998 by Greg Keith
