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On Handling the Data By: M. I. Mayfield |
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by M. I. MAYFIELD Illustrated by Freas [Illustration]
Sometimes a story is best told by omission !
September 16, 1957 Dr. Robert Von Engen, Editor
Journal of the National Academy of Sciences,
Constitution Avenue, N. W.,
Washington, D. C. Dear Sir: I am taking the liberty of writing you this letter since I read your
published volume, "Logical Control: The Computer vs. Brain" (Silliman
Memorial Lecture Series, 1957), with the hope that you can perhaps offer
me some advice and also publish this letter in the editorial section.
Your mathematical viewpoint on the analysis between computing machines
and the living human brain, especially the conclusion that the brain
operates in part digitally and in part analogically, using its own
statistical language involving selection, conditional transfer orders,
branching, and control sequence points, et cetera, makes me feel that
only you can offer me some information with logical arithmetic depth . The questions raised in this letter are designed principally to reach
the embryonic and juvenile scientists ... the scientists elect , so to
speak. (I think the "mature scientists" are irretrievably lost.) For
many reasons, some of which will be explained in the following
paragraphs, I think that it is of the greatest importance that some
stimulatable audience be reached. As yet, the beginners have no rigid
scientific biases and thus may have sufficient curiosity and flexibility
about the world in which they live to approach experimentation with a
mind devoid of "the hierarchy of memory registers which have programmed
in erroneous data." What I have to say will not surprise nor shock you , or those who are
at present engaged in scientific investigation. In fact, I have read
many science fiction stories that deal with the same problem. Perhaps
that is the only way that it can be approached, through the medium of a
story? Yet why not present it for what it may be? Let me tell it my own
way, and then, please, let me have your coldly logical opinion. As to my background, I am a graduate student in the Zoology Department
of a midwestern university working toward a Master's degree, or actually
a doctorate we can bypass the M.S. if we choose in the field of
Cellular Physiology. My sponsor is an internationally known man in the
field. The area of research that I have selected is concerned with the
effects of physical and chemical agents on the synthesis of nucleic
acids of the cell. Obviously, this is a big field, and I hope to select
from among the different agents, one or two that will give "positive
results." I have been doing active research for about half a year
testing the different agents. As for the fundamental questions raised,
I am positive that it would make no difference in what field of
science I were to work. By now I have had enough course work to realize that when performing any
assigned laboratory exercise they should not be called
experiments even of a cook book type, little or even major
discrepancies arise, and always on the initial trials , no matter how
carefully one works! As you are probably aware, the teaching assistant
in charge of the lab or the instructor, generally runs through the
exercise before the class does in order to get the "bugs" out of it I
am deliberately generalizing, since the above holds for all of the
laboratory sciences so when the student gets confusing or rather
contradictory results, the instructor can deftly point out the error in
the setup or calculations, or what have you . He may even indicate
what results may be expected. The last is critical. Similarly other
students in the laboratory usually have friends who have had the course
before and know what results are expected this technique is frowned
upon . Or one may consult textbooks and published papers. (This, by the
way, is known as library research , and is generally conceded to be
indicative of the superior student, especially if he points out the fact
that he is so interested that he just had to delve into the
literature... Continue reading book >>
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Epistolary fiction |
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