Could a Neuroscientist Understand a Microprocessor? (2017)
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HN comment orderTesting analytical methods of a field against engineered artefacts is a good idea but there is a fatal flaw here; devices that do a fetch-decode-execute-retire loop against a register file and a memory bus have perversely little in common with what neurobiology is concerned with. A more appropriate artefact would be a CPU and its memory (where NOP'ing out code or flipping flags corresponds to "lesioning"), or even better, an FPGA design (where different functions work in parallel in different…
I wrote a lay summary of this paper that compares and contrasts with the whole brain imaging and stimulation literature for those interested in a lighter read! http://www.neuwritewest.org/blog/can-we-reverse-engineer-the...
Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11780565
See also episode 193 of the podcast "Rationally Speaking." http://rationallyspeakingpodcast.org/show/rs-193-eric-jonas-...
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reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking