Brief Notes on Neurophysics

1
Brief Notes on Neurophysics
Neuron a specialized cell for signal processing
body (soma) with dendrites (receiving
signals) and axon
(sending signals) When triggered, an action
potential propagates along the axon. Upon
arriving at synapse, it causes the synaptic
vesicles to spill neurotransmitter across the
synaptic cleft In human 1011 neurons, 1014
synapses cf. 302 neurons, 7000
synapses in a little worm (C. elegans) see PDF
2
(No Transcript)
3
(No Transcript)
4
(No Transcript)
5
(No Transcript)
6
(No Transcript)
7
Brain, Consciousness and more

• Highly connected networks exhibit emergent
  complexity.
• A phase transition is a sudden (in some
  parameter space) switch to a qualitatively new
  form
• Could it be that consciousness (and more) is
  just a phase transition when complexity exceeds
  some level
• If so, then understanding could be elusive
  indeed!
• But could this be accomplished artificially?
• Similar for origin of life
• Implications

8
Brief Notes on Nanotechnology

• Origin Richard Feynman (There's Plenty of Room
  at the Bottom 1959 !)
• First PhD on molecular nanotechnology Eric
  Drexler, from MIT in 1991
• Principle like molecular biology, but starting
  from scratch
• Main difficulty starting from scratch
• sticky fingers
• difficult self-reproduction (maybe that
  is fortunate cf grey goo)

9
An Illustration of Attitudes

• When an exaggeration in favor of nanotechnology
  occurs, nobody complains (cf. utility fog -gt
  Arabian jinn, nanomedicine etc.)
• When a (possibly) exaggerated worry is expressed,
  the reaction is swift and venomous (cf. grey
  goo)
• Recall when a scientist says that something can
  be done, she is usually right.
• When a scientist says something cannot be
  done, he is usually wrong.

10
Present Status

• Rapidly developing field
• Some interesting but not really useful
  demonstrations
• Mostly progress in instrumentation (e.g. optical
  tweezers)
• Concrete success with carbon Buckeyballs and with
  nanotubes (Artificial microtubules)

11
Brief Notes on Computer Science

• There is (unbeknownst to most users) a machine
  language beneath all computing
• Bits, bytes, words
• Instruction set example OPCODE A1 A2
• (so 113475 means add content of memory
  location 34 and location 75, and put the result
  into location 75
• or 550078 might mean go to location 78 and
  execute the instruction which is there )

12
Programming and Clicking

• High-level computer languages
• FORTRAN, C, C, C-sharp, Java,
• Then GUI (graphical user interface) -gt
• click click click (and nobody knows how it
  works)
• Then Internet and WWW even more clicking, and a
  new meaning to the old problem
• Data -gt Information -gt Knowledge -gt Wisdom

13
Prospects for the Future

• Moores law doubling of performance every 2
  years
• gt in 20 years factor of 1,000, in 40 years,
  factor of 1,000,000
• Where is the quantum-mechanical limit?
• But then Quantum Computing?
• (Richard Feynman, again !!!)

14
Date Chip Transistors MIPS
clock/MHz 1965 none ( vacuum tubes )
0.006 Nov 1971 4004 2300
0.06 0.1 Apr 1974 8080
6000 0.64 2 Jun 1978 8086
29000 0.75 10 Feb 1982 80286
134000 2.66 12 Oct 1985
386DX 275000 5 16 Apr
1989 80486 1,200,000 20
25 Mar 1993 Pentium 3,100,000 112
66 Nov 1995 Pentium Pro 5,500,000 428
200 2000 Pentium 4 4.107
1500 1500 soon
109 24000 24000
15
Quantum Computing on one slide

• main trick Quantum parallelism
• (recall the Schrodinger Cat ? ? ? )
• (01)(01)(01)(01)
• 
  000000
• 
  000001
• ..
  
• 
  000011
• 
  00011.
• .
  
• 
  11111.1
• e.g. a 300-Qbit quantum computer will perform
• 2300 10100 operations simultaneously

16
RSA-640 is factored! Decimal Digits 193
3107418240490043721350750035888567930037346022842
7275457201619488232064405180815045563468296717232
8678243791627283803341547107310850191954852900733
7724822783525742386454014691736602477652346609
The factoring research team of F. Bahr, M.
Boehm, J. Franke, T. Kleinjung continued its
productivity with a successful factorization of
the challenge number RSA-640, reported on
November 2, 2005. The factors verified by RSA
Laboratories are 1634733645809253848443133883865
0908598417836700330923121811108523893331001045081
51212118167511579 and 1900871281664822113126851573
935413975471896789968 515493666638539088027103802
104498957191261465571 The effort took
approximately 30 2.2GHz-Opteron-CPU years
according to the submitters, over five months of
calendar time. (This is about half the effort for
RSA-200, the 663-bit number that the team
factored in 2004.) Further progress
exponentially more difficult. The difficulty for
Quantum Computers is non-exponential. but there
are other difficulties decoherence ?
(best accomplishment so far 15)
17
Brief Notes on Artificial Intelligence

• As with nuclear fusion, a breakthrough is always
  behind the next corner
• A brute-force approach the chess machines
• The case of professor Cope
• It seems likely (to VC, at least) that real
  breakthrough will come, if ever, from massive
  parallelism

18
Brief Notes on Robotics

• This was the main topic of the Stanford
  Colloquium
• Practical applications are already numerous
  (factories, planetary exploration military, )
• This is the dream/nightmare of many (i.e. either
  
• we will become one with robots
• or the robots will take over)
• (see Moravec / Kurzweil / transhumanists )
• This is also, right now, not very high on my list
  (i.e. I believe it will require a breakthrough in
  AI)

19
(No Transcript)
20
Conclusions

• The rate of progress is breathtaking
• The present and potential benefits are enormous
• The dangers are commensurate
• There is a Chinese curse which says "May he live
  in interesting times." Like it or not we live in
  interesting times. They are times of danger and
  uncertainty but they are also more open to the
  creative energy of men than any other time in
  history.
• Robert F. Kennedy

21
Notes on the International Aspects

• Two 9/11 speeches (one drafted by VC)
• How naive is that?
• UN reform/rebuild/replace of reject?
• UN membership, Tuvalu vs. World Bank
• Troubles with the Security Council
• Example of Inter. Atomic Energy Agency
• Example of the EU convention against torture
• Example of the replace option Federation of
  Democratic Nations ?
• Example of thinking out of the box BMD
• Do we, occasionally, stumble upon the Truth?

22
Overview of International Affairs

• Peace of Westphalia (1648) ended the Thirty
  Years' War the first modern diplomatic
  congress new order in central Europe based on
  the concept of national sovereignty.
• WWI a sheer madness. 1914 to 1918. 20 million
  dead. German Austria-HungaryOttoman empire
• vs. FranceGreat BritainRussiaUSA
• Outcome 1) Treaty of Versailles (its enforcement
  -gt Hitler !!!)
• 2) League of Nations 1920
  1946. Overall, a failure.
• WW II 1937 1945. 60 million dead.
• Nazi GermanyFascist Italy Imperial Japan
• Vs. FranceGreat BritainSoviet Union
• United Nations 1945 present
• A General Assembly of 192 member states (China(1
  billion) Tuvalu (10,000) 1 vote each)
• Security Council with 5 veto-carrying powers (US,
  Russia, China, UK, France)

23
Fellow citizens      On September 11, United
States, as well as citizens of many other
countries suffered a grievous loss in a terrorist
attack by a group of religious fanatics. Almost
at the same time, a smaller scale but perhaps
even more ominous  was the terrorist mailing of
anthrax-laden envelopes, unleashed probably  by a
single, technically capable but mentally deranged
person.      These events reminds us, if it was
necessary, that we have entered a new era. Due to
advances in science and technology, the
capability of causing extreme harm is, or will
soon be, in the reach of small groups or even
individuals. This has been called
"Knowledge-Enabled Mass Destruction", and if
unchecked, it will bring about even much larger
suffering, perhaps even large scale, catastrophic
events. This can be caused  not just by
terrorists, but also accidentally or by a
miscalculation.       It will be very difficult
to prevent this from happening. People will
always have grievances, and technological means
of terror will be available. The United States
has currently the military power to defeat any
hostile or rogue state, but it is not possible to
fight small groups or individuals with tanks and
missiles. Much thoughtful and sustained effort
will have to go into this crucial effort. Above
all, the rule of international law has to be
strengthened, so that we have tools to fight this
new kind of struggle.    
24
The obvious candidate for this is the United
Nations, which after all was created after WW2 to
enable nations to solve their problems without
wars. But the United Nations needs fundamental
reforms. The current structure includes 40
mini-states with less that 1 million citizen
each, as well as states hundred- or even
thousand-times bigger. The main decisions are
supposed to be taken, unanimously, by an archaic
Security Council. It may turn out that the United
Nations' structure is too flawed, in which case
we must start from scratch.    Of course, the
United States will find out and bring to account
those responsible for the recent attacks. At the
same time, and with the same urgency, we will use
all our power and weight to find solutions to the
problem of strengthening the international law,
and how to deal with the problem of
Knowledge-Enabled mass Destruction. As a start, I
am proposing that Congress pass a legislation
allocating  a meaningful budget  to create
Institutes of Foresight and Centers for
Strengthening International Law at major
Universities as well as federal agencies. This
program should involve our top scientists as well
as scholars from the Humanities and political and
military leaders, and we welcome cooperation from
all countries of good will. The problem is
difficult, but together we have a chance of
creating a better and safer world.    
25
Fellow citizens, On September 11 our nation  was
attacked by evildoers. Since that day we are at
war with terror. This war has been started by
others, but it will end at the time of our
choosing. Make no mistake we will prevail. All
countries have to choose either they are with
us, or they are with the terrorists. We will
smoke out Osama, dead or alive. The evil dictator
Saddam, developing weapons of mass destruction
and supporting terrorists, has 48 hours to get
out of Iraq. Syria and Iran will need a
regime-change, too, and we will figure out what
to do about North Korea and others. All this will
be done by Coalitions of the willing, each of
them under our leadership - the United Nations
will be permitted to engage in humanitarian
effort. This will be an American Century - may
God bless the United States of America.
26
Call It the U.N. Commission on Sustainable
DictatorshipsBusiness as usual as Zimbabwe takes
a seat.By Claudia Rosett, National Review
Online, May 13, 2007 With Zimbabwe elected
Friday to chair the United Nations Commission on
Sustainable Development, we now have the latest
poster-child for the usual U.N. Orwellian abuse
of the noble mandate, glorious goals, and all
those good things There is by now every sign
that the endless production of reports,
proposals, and strategies for U.N. reform
serves chiefly to produce new programs, projects,
and initiatives, coupled with fresh U.N. demands
for money. Put together, the 13 states listed
above, despite including Security Council
Permanent-Five veto-wielding movers and shakers
Russia and China, pay a grand total of 4.941
percent of U.N. core assessed dues. Thats less
than one quarter of the 22 percent paid by the
U.S
27
What Is To Be Done (again )

• Very modest example
• make the General Assembly meaningful by grouping
  member states into units no smaller than, say 50
  million (e.g. Poland Czech Rep. Slovakia
• Or 40 smallest states -gt Microstate Federation)
• Much more difficult
• make Security Council meaningful

28
Do we, occasionally, and temporarily,
stumble upon the
Truth? We stand today at a unique and
extraordinary moment. . Now, we can see a new
world coming into view. A world where the
United Nations, freed from cold war stalemate, is
poised to fulfill the historic vision of its
founders. The (former) US President George
H.W.Bush, reacting to the 1st Gulf War The
gravest danger our Nation faces lies at the
crossroads of radicalism and technology. Nationa
l Security Strategy 2002
29
Eve and Klebsiella Puzzles

• Eve and Adam If something sounds too good . The
  famous philosopher made an elemntary error in his
  logic argument. So no, logic does not replace
  years painstaking research
• Klebsiella If something sounds too bad .
• If true I would have known about it
• In fact everyone would have known this would
  even be maybe the warning event we might need
  to see the urgency of the Basic problem
• So it triggered my detector
• 15 minutes on www has shown that it is all bogus
  an overinterpretaion of an experiment by an
  inexperienced graduate student and an eager,
  activist professor
• Lesson 1 such false alarms are very damaging
• Lesson 2 keep improving your detector
• Consolation Evangelical Scientists Refute
  Gravity
• (also Cloned scientists testify in Congress)