Neural Networks and Parallel Computation

Research has shown that a signal received by a neuron travels through the dendrite region, and down the axon. Separating nerve cells is a gap called the synapse. In order for the signal to be transferred to the next neuron, the signal must be converted from electrical to chemical energy. The signal can then be received by the next neuron and processed. Warren McCulloch after completing medical school at Yale, along with Walter Pitts a mathematician proposed a hypothesis to explain the fundamentals of how neural networks made the brain work. Based on experiments with neurons, McCulloch and Pitts showed that neurons might be considered devices for processing binary numbers. An important back of mathematic logic, binary numbers (represented as 1's and 0's or true and false) were also the basis of the electronic computer. This link is the basis of computer-simulated neural networks, also know as Parallel computing. A century earlier the true / false nature of binary numbers was theorized in 1854 by George Boole in his postulates concerning the Laws of Thought. Boole's principles make up what is known as Boolean algebra, the collection of logic concerning AND, OR, NOT operands. For example according to the Laws of thought the statement: (for this example consider all apples red) Apples are red-- is True Apples are red AND oranges are purple-- is False Apples are red OR oranges are purple-- is True Apples are red AND oranges are NOT purple-- is also True Boole also assumed that the human mind works according to these laws, it performs logical operations that could be reasoned. Ninety years later, Claude Shannon applied Boole's principles in circuits, the blueprint for electronic computers. Boole's contribution to the future of computing and Artificial Intelligence was immeasurable, and his logic is the basis of neural networks. McCulloch and Pitts, using Boole's principles, wrote a paper on neural network theory. The thesis dealt with how the networks of connected neurons could perform logical operations. It also stated that, one the level of a single neuron, the release or failure to release an impulse was the basis by which the brain makes true / false decisions. Using the idea of feedback theory, they described the loop which existed between the senses ---> brain ---> muscles, and likewise concluded that Memory could be defined as the signals in a closed loop of neurons. Although we now know that logic in the brain occurs at a level higher then McCulloch and Pitts theorized, their contributions were important to AI because they showed how the firing of signals between connected neurons could cause the brains to make decisions. McCulloch and Pitt's theory is the basis of the artificial neural network theory. Using this theory, McCulloch and Pitts then designed electronic replicas of neural networks, to show how electronic networks could generate logical processes. They also stated that neural networks may, in the future, be able to learn, and recognize patterns. The results of their research and two of Weiner's books served to increase enthusiasm, and laboratories of computer simulated neurons were set up across the country. Two major factors have inhibited the development of full scale neural networks. Because of the expense of constructing a machine to simulate neurons, it was expensive even to construct neural networks with the number of neurons in an ant. Although the cost of components have decreased, the computer would have to grow thousands of times larger to be on the scale of the human brain. The second factor is current computer architecture. The standard Von Neuman computer, the architecture of nearly all computers, lacks an adequate number of pathways between components. Researchers are now developing alternate architectures for use with neural networks. Even with these inhibiting factors, artificial neural networks have presented some impressive results. Frank Rosenblatt, experimenting with computer simulated networks, was able to create a machine that could mimic the human thinking process, and recognize letters. But, with new top-down methods becoming popular, parallel computing was put on hold. Now neural networks are making a return, and some researchers believe that with new computer architectures, parallel computing and the bottom-up theory will be a driving factor in creating artificial intelligence.