Alan's reply made clear the connection between his interests in the logical and the physical structure of the brain:
图灵的回复,反映了他对大脑结构的逻辑层与物理层之间的联系很有兴趣:
Dear Young, I think very likely our disagreements are mainly about the use of words.
亲爱的杨:我们很可能只是说法不同。
I was of course fully aware that the brain would not have to do comparisons of an object with everything from teapots to clouds, and that the identification would be broken up into stages,
我当然完全认识到,大脑不需要从茶壶到云彩逐个匹配所有事物,我也认为"识别"的过程是分阶段的,
but if the method is carried very far I should not be inclined to describe the resulting process as one of 'matching'.
但是如果在这个前提下,我认为不应该将这个过程称为"匹配"。
Your problem about storage capacity achievable by means of N (1010 say) neurons with M (100 say) outlets and facilitation is capable of solution which is quite as accurate as the problem requires.
你的关于N(比如1010)个神经元和M(比如100)个输出的存储容量及其最简性的问题,这是一个描述的很精确的问题。
If I understand it right, the idea is that by different trainings certain of the paths could be made effective and the others ineffective.
如果我理解的没错,其大意是,假设通过相应的训练,某些路径过变得有效,其余的会失效,
How much information could be stored in the brain in this way?
在这种方式下,大脑可以存储多少信息?
The answer is simply MN binary digits, for there are MN paths each capable of two states.
我的答案是,MN个二进制位,因为一共有MN条路径,每条路径有两种状态。
If you allowed each path to have eight states (whatever that might mean) you would get 3MN...
如果你假设每条路径有8种状态(不知道这意味着什么),那么答案就是3MN……
I am afraid I am very far from the stage where I feel inclined to start asking any anatomical questions.
我恐怕还不需要咨询关于解剖学的问题,
According to my notions of how to set about it that will not occur until quite a late stage when I have a fairly definite theory about how things are done.
我认为这是后续的工作,在这之前,我要首先在理论层面上搞清楚它的运作机制。
At present I am not working on the problem at all, but on my mathematical theory of embryology, which I think I described to you at one time.
现在我并没有在研究这个问题,而是在研究胚胎学的数学原理,我记得我有一次跟你讲过。