Overcoming Randomness

• If you think of the brain as 65 billion random neurons, with random connections, that also behave randomly, you can't imagine it thinking.
• That's because it's not all random.
• The neurons aren't random. There are ranges of types of neurons in different areas. It seems that this is what we are genetically predisposed to have.
• Similarly, connections are not random. They are random within a restricted set of options.
• Moreover, they probably grow based on behaviour.
• You can start to deal with randomness with the rule of large numbers.
• For example, if you have 100 synapses randomly entering 10 neurons, the average neuron will have 10 inputs, the next most common 11 and 9, then 8 and 12 and so forth. It is possible that one neuron will get all 100 connections, but it's really unlikely (10^100).
• So randomness can lead to unusual behaviour (when one neuron gets 20 inputs), but almost all the time it will get between 8 and 12.
• Moreover, your neural system can evolve over time. You can't take advantage of attractor dynamics.