Re: HC selectivity ... was Re: Physiological models of cochlea activity - alternatives to the travelling wave

[Toth Laszlo <tothl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I would like to emphasize this section:
> "They however are not as important as the ability to understand the
> underlying dynamics of a complex system. These insights are needed to assess
> whether the assumptions of a model are correct and complete."

Probably the whole discussion boils down to terminological differences. It
seems to me that you use the term "model" in a more restricted sense. As
Dick Lyon wrote, "Martin has his own models, but he doesn't want to call
them that." Your quotation uses the word "understand", and maybe we mean
slightly different things on that. For an engineer the most natural way of
representing knowledge is by creating mathematical formulae of computer
simulations - that is, for them understanding practically equals being
able to create proper models. I don't know what is the meaning of
"understand" for you.
Regards,

               Laszlo Toth
        Hungarian Academy of Sciences         *
  Research Group on Artificial Intelligence   *   "Failure only begins
     e-mail: tothl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx            *    when you stop trying"
     http://www.inf.u-szeged.hu/~tothl        *