Neural and Super-Turing Computing

Author: Siegelmann H.T.

Source: Minds and Machines, Volume 13, Number 1, February 2003 , pp. 103-114(12)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

``Neural computing'' is a research field based on perceiving the human brain as an information system. This system reads its input continuously via the different senses, encodes data into various biophysical variables such as membrane potentials or neural firing rates, stores information using different kinds of memories (e.g., short-term memory, long-term memory, associative memory), performs some operations called ``computation'', and outputs onto various channels, including motor control commands, decisions, thoughts, and feelings. We show a natural model of neural computing that gives rise to hyper-computation. Rigorous mathematical analysis is applied, explicating our model's exact computational power and how it changes with the change of parameters. Our analog neural network allows for supra-Turing power while keeping track of computational constraints, and thus embeds a possible answer to the superiority of the biological intelligence within the framework of classical computer science. We further propose it as standard in the field of analog computation, functioning in a role similar to that of the universal Turing machine in digital computation. In particular an analog of the Church-Turing thesis of digital computation is stated where the neural network takes place of the Turing machine.

Keywords: analog computation; computational theory; chaos; dynamical systems; neuron

Language: English

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Department of Computer Science, Amherst, MA 01003, USA; E-mail: hava@cs.umass.edu

Publication date: 2003-02-01