More Neurophysics

The thermodynamics of learning
Feb 2017, phys.org

While investigating how efficiently the brain can learn new information, physicists have found that, at the neuronal level, learning efficiency is ultimately limited by the laws of thermodynamics

"The second law is a very powerful statement about which transformations are possible—and learning is just a transformation of a neural network at the expense of energy. "
- Sebastian Goldt at the University of Stuttgart, Germany

In the new study, the scientists showed that learning efficiency is bounded by the total entropy production of a neural network. They demonstrated that, the slower a neuron learns, the less heat and entropy it produces, increasing its efficiency. In light of this finding, the scientists introduced a new measure of learning efficiency based on energy requirements and thermodynamics.

On Value and the Palimpsest

palimpsest - origin

What we see is actually another overlay on the palimpsest of a personal history of art-viewing. When the work, coming through the eyes, presently, combined with the palimpsest coming from the memory, produces a new sensation, glowingly harmonious, or alarmingly disjointing, then, a work ascertains value.

Then, it is an achievement. 

palimpsest - iteration

And when enough individuals experience this and communicate it through a network until it fixes itself in the cultural matrix, it becomes another layer itself of the palimpsest, adding more standards and complexities to the criteria of any future work.

inspired while reading
The Forger’s Art: Forgery and the Philosophy of Art
Denis Dutton, ed.
Berkeley, 1983

partially unrelated internet imageDetails of Perception