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Comment by laotzu | Hacker News Reader

>Human brain and human behavior is not "black and white" anymore, it's never going to be. It's a complex system of neuron junctions

Aren't those neurons fundamentally firing on and off, like that of a binary system? On and off is analogous to "black and white"

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Oh no! Not at all. They modulate amplitude, frequency, phase. They have recharge times and duty cycles and limits and hysteresis. Each neuron is like some FM radio station. Not remotely like binary.

Ah, forgive my ignorance. But when you speak of amplitude and frequency, you are referring to wave-like phenomenon correct? Are not waves binary, or "black and white" in the sense that they go up and down and that the these two dualities are relative and dependent on each other for their definition?

They aren't binary. They don't have two values, they have a multitude of values (theoretically infinite if it's truly continuous and not stepped between the minimum and maximum).

If neurons only responded to each other at the min and max value (or a couple thresholds/ranges rather than strictly matching values), then it could be seen as binary. But they respond differently along the range of their inputs to produce a range of outputs, so not binary.

Their outputs may also differ over time when given the 'same input'.

Right! They are stateful and can even have variable gain/time constants etc.

Sure, just like your computer monitor is only ever solid black or solid white because the picture is made of binary bits.

My question was in regards to fundamental basis and not the abstractions built on top of that basis.

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