In the last month over 70,000 perceptrons have flowed into The Goo.I know that sounds like a lot but it doesn't feel too bad. It's not like your email inbox is suddenly inundated with 70,000 messages. The perceptrons are spread more or less evenly through time, and they kind of wash over you, for want of a better description.
Seeing wave after wave of perceptrons makes you feel slightly out of control but in a good way. All the perceptrons are flying in but once they go past it's reassuring to know they are frozen in the trail. Like events in a computer game some things can just fly by whilst others require special attention. The trail acts like a mental crutch collecting all the perceptrons.
Meanwhile, between waves of perceptrons, I've been bringing my cognitive science knowledge back up to date. Things have moved on since I studied 'cog sci' at the University of Queensland in the early 90's and I've really enjoyed reading Doug Hofstadter's, "I am a Strange Loop".
I'm halfway through the book and can't find too much I disagree with so far. If indeed our consciousness is, as Hofstadter suggests, a kind of "strange loop" then as a computer scientist it's very tempting to think of ways to optimise the loop!
All in all I still feel like I'm on the right trail.
