[HN Gopher] A Mechanical Neural Network Learns to Respond to Its...
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A Mechanical Neural Network Learns to Respond to Its Environment
Author : _Microft
Score : 24 points
Date : 2022-10-20 17:56 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.hackster.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.hackster.io)
| akihitosan wrote:
| I think to call a big machine a material is very wrong.
| mach1ne wrote:
| >Learns to Respond to Its Environment
|
| So we're back at this kind of antropomorphization.
| juunpp wrote:
| *Anthropos, and as if learning was unique to humans? What is
| learning anyway if not the adaptation of the brain to its
| inputs?
| andrewflnr wrote:
| Given the title "Mechanical Neural Network", the presence of a
| conventional digital computer is really disappointing. I went in
| to this article hoping for steampunk AI.
| abecedarius wrote:
| Here's an idea: ReLU basically = a seesaw + ropes that attach
| at a movable distance from the fulcrum. Adjusting a 'weight' =
| sliding the attachment. Nonlinearity = rope can pull but not
| push.
|
| I'm afraid getting the details to work in practice would
| probably be horrible.
|
| Not steampunk but sort of biopunk: years ago someone programmed
| a DNA strand displacement mechanism to implement a particular
| fixed neural network, as a proof of concept.
| iNic wrote:
| I don't understand the advantage of this over just having a
| digital NN and then pushing the output to some electric motor?
| mjburgess wrote:
| It depends on how much koolaid you've drunk.
|
| A NN implemented on a digital computer is a fixed way of
| varying the electrical field of the CPU (etc.) given (eg.,) an
| SSD state which produces a fixed way of varying (eg.,) a motor.
|
| This is very (very) far away from adaptive motion at the
| "tissue" level.
|
| The semi-mystical notion that a NN is a kind of "programming of
| reality" is false: just as a NN running on a CPU cannot perform
| nuclear fusion, it likewise, cannot produce material
| adaptation.
|
| It is an open question whether any non-organic material is
| adaptive, and I'd bet against it.
| rongopo wrote:
| Indeed there is not such advantage.
| bufferoverflow wrote:
| I think you're missing the point. I think it's to demonstrate
| that fully mechanical systems can learn and react like a real
| brain plus muscles and sensors.
|
| The possible implication is, if consciousness can arise in a
| digital neural net, it can also arise in a mechanical system,
| you just need enough of levers and gears connected in a certain
| way.
| djokkataja wrote:
| > I think it's to demonstrate that fully mechanical systems
| can learn and react like a real brain plus muscles and
| sensors.
|
| That wasn't the point of the research as expressed in the
| article (note that the final image has a label for "Control
| electronics" underneath the mechanical system):
|
| > Thus, this work lays the foundation for artificial-
| intelligent (AI) materials that can learn behaviors and
| properties.
|
| With applications such as:
|
| > use in aircraft wings to morph the shape in response to
| wind patterns to boost efficiency, adding reactive rigidity
| to buildings to better withstand earthquakes and other
| disasters, shockwave-deflecting reactive armor, or even the
| creation of surfaces able to perform acoustic imaging.
| rongopo wrote:
| What is the point of the video??
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