Neuromancer49

@Neuromancer49@midwest.social
0 Post – 28 Comments
Joined 1 years ago

In grad school I worked with MRI data (hence the username). I had to upload ~500GB to our supercomputing cluster. Somewhere around 100,000 MRI images, and wrote 20 or so different machine learning algorithms to process them. All said and done, I ended up with about 2.5TB on the supercomputer. About 500MB ended up being useful and made it into my thesis.

Don't stay in school, kids.

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They raised my rent 20% over two years and priced me out of two apartments. Glad to see progress.

Heck, we barely know how neurons work. Sure, we've got the important stuff down like action potentials and ion channels, but there's all sorts of stuff we don't fully understand yet. For example, we know the huntingtin protein is critical to neuron growth (maybe for axons?), and we know if the gene has too many mutations it causes Huntington's disease. But we don't know why huntingtin is essential, or how it actually effects neuron growth. We just know that cells die without it, or when it is misformed.

Now, take that uncertainty and multiply it by the sheer number of genes and proteins we haven't fully figured out and baby, you've got a stew going.

Devastating loss for the science community. I used this database in my PhD, and didn't expect it to shut down ever.

Believe it or not, I studied this in school. There's some niche applications for alternative computers like this. My favorite is the way you can use DNA to solve the traveling salesman problem (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_computing?wprov=sfla1)

There have been other "bioprocessors" before this one, some of which have used neurons for simple image detection, e.g https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/1396377?casa_token=-gOCNaYaKZIAAAAA:Z0pSQkyDBjv6ITghDSt5YnbvrkA88fAfQV_ISknUF_5XURVI5N995YNaTVLUtacS7cTsOs7o. But this seems to be the first commercial application. Yes, it'll use less energy, but the applications will probably be equally as niche. Artificial neural networks can do most of the important parts (like "learn" and "rememeber") and are less finicky to work with.

I loved FFTA so much, and did not care as much for FFTA2 on DS. Easily sunk 1000 hours into my GBA copy.

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Actually, neuron-based machine learning models can handle this. The connections between the fake neurons can be modeled as a "strength", or the probability that activating neuron A leads to activation of neuron B. Advanced learning models just change the strength of these connections. If the probability is zero, that's a "lost" connection.

Those models don't have physical connections between neurons, but mathematical/programmed connections. Those are easy to change.

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We've got some really good theories, though. Neurons make new connections and prune them over time. We know about two types of ion channels within the synapse - AMPA and NMDA. AMPA channels open within the post-synapse neuron when glutamate is released by the pre-synapse neuron. And the AMPA receptor allows sodium ions into the dell, causing it to activate.

If the post-synapse cell fires for a long enough time, i.e. recieves strong enough input from another cells/enough AMPA receptors open, the NMDA receptor opens and calcium enters the cell. Typically an ion of magnesium keeps it closed. Once opened, it triggers a series of cellular mechanisms that cause the connection between the neurons to get stronger.

This is how Donald Hebb's theory of learning works. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebbian_theory?wprov=sfla1

Cells that fire together, wire together.

Thanks for the recommendation, I was worried they would be missing some of my artists but they had 99% of my music. Can't wait to ditch Spotify.

ETA: dear lord the sound quality is so much better. I had no idea what I was missing.

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Well if you liked PoE I doubt you'll like D4. It's a much simpler game. Sadly my only advice is to try GD and Last Epoch again. I've got hundreds of hours in the former and I just got 10 hours into the latter.

Last Epoch feels like a more approachable PoE. I thoroughly enjoy how the skills interplay with one another, but I still prefer the itemization in Grim Dawn.

The only reason I'm not playing GD currently is because I have too many QoL mods installed so my cloud saving doesn't work, but I can cloud save for Last Epoch for my steam deck lmao.

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So a republican in NORTH DAKOTA tweeted that OHIO should ignore the election? Correct me if I'm wrong, but that doesn't seem like the concerted push to overturn the election that I expected when reading that headline.

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It's a bunch of neurons that speak to a computer with a microelectrode array. So they "speak to" the neurons with electric impulses, and then "listen to" what they have to say. The computer it's connected to uses binary, but the neurons are somewhere in between. Yes, the change in electrical potential is analog, but neurons are typically in their "on" state, recovering from their "on" state, or just chilling out.

The brain is incredible because of the network of connections between neurons that store information. It'll be interesting to see if a small scale system like this can be used for anything larger scale.

Outer Wilds was the best game I played on PS4. I strongly recommend experiencing it for yourself.

I would say the space ship/0g flight is maybe 30% of the gameplay, and you don't need to be really excellent at it, thankfully.

It's not a terrible idea by any means. It's pretty hard to do, though. Check out the Blue Brain Project. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Brain_Project?wprov=sfla1

ETA: not to mention the brain is a heck of a lot more than a collection of neurons. Other commenters pointed out how we just discovered a new kind of brain cell - the brain is filled with so many different types of neurons (e.g. pyramidal, Purkinje, dopamine-based, myelinated, unmyelinated, internet Ron's, etc.). Then there's an entire class of "neuron support" cells called neuralgia. This includes oligodendrocytes (and Schwann cells), microglia, satellite cells, and most importantly, astrocytes. These star-shaped cells can have a huge impact on how neurons communicate by uptaking neurotransmitters and other mechanisms.

Here's more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripartite_synapse?wprov=sfla1

I've been quoting Jordan Peterson for years?! Ahhh fuck.

Nah. Fenced epee for a bit in a college club. Height advantage was pretty great. I guess it just depends on the weapon.

Fair point. But, I think the headline was a but sensationalized. Or, I'm just bad at reading, which is possible.

Actually, we've got some pretty sophisticated models of neurons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Brain_Project?wprov=sfla1

See my other comment for an example of how little we truly understand about neurons.

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I've never seen an exact number ascribed to it, any chance you have a source?

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My understanding was you needed to have a second copy to 100% - I was always missing a specific mission item. So I never completed the game.

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It's been in development for a while: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/1396377?casa_token=-gOCNaYaKZIAAAAA:Z0pSQkyDBjv6ITghDSt5YnbvrkA88fAfQV_ISknUF_5XURVI5N995YNaTVLUtacS7cTsOs7o

Even before the above paper, I recall efforts to connect (rat) brains to computers in the late 90s/early 2000s. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1012407611130

My job is 8:30 - 5 with a 30 minute lunch break. So almost.

But, we also get 2 days/week at home, and can flex time as required. Tons of international work, so the flexible hours are a godsend when time zones are against us.

It's a salaried position and depending on your supervisor and stage of your career, you're expected to work 40-45 hours a week. Deadlines and ugly projects tend to increase hours work. I'm very lucky, as my industry can be pretty brutal with sudden ends to projects and unexpected layoffs.

I continue to feed my X4 addiction. Picked up the DLC during the Thanksgiving sale. I'm on my second play, about 35 hours in. Realized I've made a lot of mistakes, but that's half the fun.

Even assuming we can model the same number of (simple machine learning model) neurons, it's the connections that matter. The number of possible connections in the human brain is literally greater than the number of atoms in the universe.

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Grim Dawn Item Assistant is your best friend. While you're at it, Rainbow Item Names (or whatever it's called).

Time to reboot and replay!!!

Very nice, thanks!

Can't say I've heard anything since launch, so take my advice with a grain of salt.