From: jdw255@tijc02.uucp (John Wilson	   )
Subject: Speculation on the mind's data structures
Organization: Siemens Industrial Automation, Johnson City TN
Distribution: net
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 92 15:35:29 GMT



                                  The Minds Eye

              This is speculation on the mechanics of data structures used
         by minds to think.  From what I have read, memory and processing
         elements of the mind are interspersed and show confusing signs of
         locality of reference combined with global knowledge.  Compactness
         and massive parallel processing are also remarked upon in the
         literature.  Data seems to reside in general areas, not in any
         specific spot.  I am speculating that these traits can be explained
         by an encoding scheme which creates an eye's viewpoint.
              What if the mind consists of a virtual space full of four
         dimensional objects.  How would the information which defines this
         space be stored?  How would processing elements look into this space?
         How would objects be manipulated?  Four dimensional objects would
         consist of three spacial dimensions and one time dimension.  How would
         the time dimension be handled?
              Four dimensions are hard to experiment with, so most of my work
         has been done in two dimensions with the expectation that it scales
         upwards.  The experiments consisted of creating a one dimensional
         array from a two dimensional space which could be both stored and
         manipulated by parallel processing elements (PE's).  In figure 1
         sensor readings are given that a point of light would have at various
         distances.  The value 6561 was chosen to make the numbers work out
         nicely.  At a distance of 0 one sensor would be affected and it would
         receive all the light.  At a distance of 8 seventeen sensors would be
         affected and would show a normal distribution of values adding up to
         6561.
              Figures 2, 5, and 8 are diagrams which are converted to vectors
         in figures 3, 6, and 9 respectively.  These vectors are converted to
         bar charts in figures 4, 7, and 10.  The 50 element vectors hold
         information about a 450 point space.  As the dimensions go up the
         compaction ratio also goes up.  If the space is too crowded then
         information access becomes more difficult.  Adding or removing points
         is accomplished by adding or subtracting appropriate values from
         figure 1 to a substring of the vector.  Rotation of an object requires
         addition and subtraction of constants to bring some points closer while
         moving others away.  Comparisions would be done by comparing
         substrings of vectors and might involve rotation or movement in the
         virtual space.
              Here are my speculative answers to my speculative questions!
         The information which defines the virtual space is stored as one
         dimensional vectors representing a viewpoint into the space.  PE's
         look into this space by finding and processing subvectors.  These
         subvectors contain the information about the points the PE's are
         interested in.  Objects are manipulated by adding and subtracting
         values from appropriate subvectors.  The time dimension would be
         handled by keeping old copies of the current vectors.  Copies could be
         reduced in size to save space.  This would cause some information to
         be lost.
















         FIGURE 1

         0                                6561
         1                           2187 2187 2187
         2                       729 1458 2187 1458 729
         3                   243 729 1458 1701 1458 729 243
         4                81 324 810 1296 1539 1296 810 324  81
         5            27 135 405 810 1215 1377 1215 810 405 135  27
         6         9  54 189 450 810 1134 1269 1134 810 450 189  54  9
         7      3 21  84 231 483 798 1071 1179 1071 798 483 231  84 21 3
         8    1 8 36 112 266 504 784 1016 1107 1016 784 504 266 112 36 8 1


         FIGURE 2

            9   *         *        *         *          *
            8
            7       *          *        *         *
            6
            5
            4
            3
            2
            1
            

         FIGURE 3

              242   506   786  1052  1277  1452  1569  1604  1525  1347 
             1144  1016  1005  1074  1151  1206  1266  1368  1503  1611 
             1641  1584  1476  1361  1284  1275  1334  1417  1455  1417 
             1331  1257  1221  1214  1221  1254  1319  1380  1369  1261 
             1107  1004   999  1053  1067   972   768   517   291   123 
            

         FIGURE 4
                   .           ...
                  ...          ...                            
                 ....         .....     .                     
                 ....         .....    ...       .            
                 .....       .......  .....     ...           
                ......      ................   .....          
                ......     .........................          
                .......   ..........................          
               ........  ............................  ..     
               ..........................................     
               ...........................................    
              .............................................   
             ...............................................  
             ................................................ 
            ................................................. 
            ..................................................
            













         FIGURE 5

            9
            8    *
            7        *
            6             *
            5                  *
            4                      *
            3                          *
            2                              *
            1
            

         FIGURE 6

              104   265   507   805  1100  1338  1499  1582  1584  1499 
             1372  1284  1301  1366  1380  1290  1218  1260  1404  1512 
             1548  1620  1701  1674  1566  1539  1782  1782  1458  1458 
             1701  2187  1458   729     0     0     0     0     0     0 
                0     0     0     0     0     0     0     0     0     0 
            

         FIGURE 7
                                           .
                                      ..   .                  
                                  ..  ..  ..                  
                   ..            ...  ..  ..                  
                   ..          .........  ..                  
                  ....         ..............                 
                  ....    .   ...............                 
                 ......  ..   ...............                 
                 ........... ................                 
                 ............................                 
                .............................                 
               ..............................                 
               ...............................                
              ................................                
             .................................                
            ..................................                
            

         FIGURE 8

            9
            8
            7                 *       *
            6         *      * *     *
            5    *   * *    *   *   *
            4   * * *   *  *     * *
            3  *   *     *        *
            2 *
            1
            

         FIGURE 9

             1080  2646  4941  5589  6111  5940  6696  6822  6804  6129 
             5913  5790  6042  5889  5730  5505  5550  5661  5715  6024 
             6453  7209  7329  7002  5868  4728  3447  2367  1383   699 
              285    93    21     3     0     0     0     0     0     0 
                0     0     0     0     0     0     0     0     0     0 
            




         FIGURE 10
                                  .                           
                                 ..                           
                                 ...                          
                   ..            ...                          
                  ...            ...                          
                  ...           ....                          
                . ....          ....                          
                . ....  .       ....                          
                . ....  .      .....                          
                ....... .      .....                          
                ....... ..     ......                         
                ..........     ......                         
                ...........   .......                         
                ...........  ........                         
               ............  ........                         
               ............ .........                         
               ......................                         
              .......................                         
              ........................                        
              .........................                       
             ..........................                       
             ...........................                      
             ............................                     
            .............................                     
            ..............................                    
            ...............................                   
            ................................                  
            
	    Best regards
	    John Wilson