Artie - Part 2

 Hi, I'm Artie, and I'm taking over for the Fish.  I will continue with very bland groupthink, because that's all I ever read -- GAAAACK!  SMASH!

And that's how you train an Artie, with a 2x4 to the head.  Let's look at neurons for a sec.  You can take any tangle of neurons and make an Artie.  The cell is one mindless blob with a zillion little hairs or axioms.  The neuron works a simple con job of putting input and output valves on the tips of each axiom.  These are called synapses, and it is just a concentration of chemicals which can control how much 'zap' each synapse can receive or put out (or pass through).

The electrons move as a potassium or calcium charge (I put that in so that the 'hoighty toighties' can dismiss me).  So, one neuron is pretty useless.  But a simple worm grows neurons and they all meet at the head and create a tangle.  Those axioms go all 3D, and 'worm' all over the place.  Since each neuron can hold hundreds of states (the strength of the synapse), we've got something here.

These days you can take any tiny hunk of human brain tissue, and train it for responses.  That's the great 'mindlessness' of minds.  Nothing is designed at the beginning.  No programming, no nothing.  You just decide who's the input and who's the output.  Then you throw in a pattern on the input, and you get a pattern on the output.  If it's wrong, you hit it with the equivalent 2x4, and if it's right you give it a cookie.

Now, they've had this shoop forever, but we got a scaling effect that worked.

-- to be continued