Quote:
Originally Posted by GreatWyrmGold
Technically, there are no discrete values in the universe, only probabilities. But it's entirely possible for those probabilities to be assembled into what is, for all practical purposes, a discrete value.
Let's bring this out of the abstract and into something more concrete by comparing human senses to electronic sensors. For instance, the human visual cortex is capable of distinguishing pulsing lights or other such stimuli only down to a certain point. That point varies from person to person and with mental state, but the highest estimates
EDIT: Okay, with new information, I've realized that computers can encode smooth, continuous wave-forms, which presumably works not only for air pressure (ie, sound) but also other quantities which can be measured. It requires a low-pass filter, ie leaving out the smallest moment-to-moment shifts, but again this shouldn't be any more of a problem for nerve signals than sound waves.
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I think we are mosty on the same side. I was challenging Kax to support his assertion that a "representation of a brain that works in discrete values can be digital. Why not? Biological brains are not analogue, just really complicated." I don't know of a brain that works in discrete values other than in the form of behaviors like counting or spelling and those are always the result of many smaller processes overlapping. You can likewise get discrete behavior from a tree where it develops a single central trunk that grows vertically, but that is a result of many tiny cellular growth processes overlapping and averaging out in that instance as well.