[Oberon] Re (n): Accessibility of FPGA configuration to V5 system.

[gray]

On Sun, 29 Aug 2021, at 20:43, peter at easthope.ca wrote:

> In a biological nervous system, growth (hardware growth) occurs 
> concurrently with learning (somewhat analogous to software 
> execution?).  Development is concurrent hardware growth and learning.
> (…) 
> A modified Lola2 might represent a nervous system at one instant.  
> That wouldn't represent development.
> 
> A nervous system development might be represented by a language 
> integrating logic description and software description?

In complex nervous systems such as the brain, the distinction between hardware and software does not make much sense, all analogies with conventional computers and their components break down quickly. Think of the plasticity of the brain, or the associative recalling of information and memories. The structure of the system is both hardware and software in one (hierarchical patterns). Changing behaviour, “storing” information, etc. always means changing this structure (neurons and their connections).

> Has anyone encountered work on this topic?

I guess as of today the best still utterly simplistic approach of artificially implementing something like a nervous system would be neural networks.

Regards
— gray

PS: FWIW, in the movie Ex Machina this unification of HW and SW is called Wetware. :)