Artificial Intelligence From the Bible

Background Information

Abstract. This preamble sets the stage for the more meaty stuff that will come later. It connects several symbolic teachings in the Bible with the organization of the brain as a whole. This information will come in handy when I begin my dissertation on the precise meaning of the seven churches of Asia.

Predecessors and Successors

My first inkling that the Bible might have something very profound to say about the brain came more than ten years ago while I was researching the temporal nature of sensory perception. I had come to understand that the meaning (identity) of an incoming sensory signal--such as might be generated by a light-sensitive cell in the retina, depended on whether or not it was immediately preceded by another signal generated by a different sensor. For example, to detect the direction of motion of a dot in the visual field, two adjacent sensors must fire in sequence. One signal must precede the other by a small interval (about 10 milliseconds in the human brain). The predecessor signal is generated by a center cell within a "center-surround" group of cells. The successor signal comes from an adjacent cell on the periphery. The signals are fed to a retinal ganglion cell (RGC) which fires when the two are in close succession. The ensuing signal is then channeled to a specific axonal path and eventually finds its way into the visual cortex in the back of the brain where further temporal processing is performed. In other words, the signal's identity is determined by the path that it takes.

The sensory cortex is essentially a huge discrete signal separation/filtration/classification network. Multiple streams of sensory signals are separated into a huge number of individual paths reflecting the temporal identity (class or category) of the signals. Signals that are blocked from a given path will likely be allowed access to another path because input sensory streams make predecessor and successor connections with multiple downstream neurons. This is the reason that approximately one million fibers coming from the human retina ultimately synapse onto four hundred million neurons in the input layer of the visual cortex. This is a four hundred to one ratio! The ratio is less in other mammals.

[To find out more about signal separation neurons in the sensory cortex, take a look at my ongoing work in artificial intelligence.]

To repeat, we have two contiguous signals (predecessor and successor) arriving in separate streams and a prepared path for the successor. Why prepared? Because the predecessor signal primes the neuron upon arrival so that, if the successor signal arrives immediately afterwards (within 10 milliseconds), the neuron fires and the signal is transmitted down the axonal path. The neuron does not fire if the successor signal arrives either simultaneously, before, or more than a short predetermined interval after the predecessor. The length of the interval is not the same for all nervous systems but it should be short enough to ensure the organism's survival in its environment. This mechanism essentially channels the successor signal down a prepared path while blocking other signals in the same stream. This is what I have been calling discrete signal separation, only because, with the use of multiple neurons, signals in a sensory stream are separated from the stream and sent down separate pathways.

Predecessor and Successors: the Biblical Symbolism

Once I understood the predecessor-successor-pathway mechanism and its importance to sensory processing, it did not take me long to notice the perfect analogy between it and these well-known biblical passages:

Malachi 3:1
"Behold, I am sending my messenger to prepare a path before me."

Isaiah 40:3
"Behold, I will send my messenger before you, who shall prepare your way; the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make the Lord's path straight."

I had always wondered about the significance of sending a messenger to prepare a path just before the arrival of the Messiah. There is no practical necessity for it. Why would the Messiah need someone to prepare a path for him? As with so many things in the Bible, there has to be a metaphorical purpose to it. I hypothesize that it is a message with a hidden symbolic meaning, or rather, part of a greater message. The temporal aspect of these biblical verses should not be lost on anyone familiar with my ideas on intelligence. After all, the web page that started it all is titled Temporal Intelligence. The principal observation to make here is that the arrivals of the prophet and the Messiah are analogous to the arrivals of two successive signals at a destination neuron. The analogy is crucial to the correct interpretation of the seven churches, as I explain elsewhere.

Predecessor and Successors: Confirmation

Not long after I came to these realizations (1994), Dr. Henry Markram of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, published a watershed paper (PDF) titled "Regulation of Synaptic Efficacy by Coincidence of Postsynaptic APs and EPSPs". The paper confirmed the importance of a timing gap (about 10 milliseconds) between pre and postsynaptic action potentials in cortical pyramidal neurons (1). Needless to say, I was elated.

He Who Has an Ear

All of this begs the question: What is the link between the messenger/Messiah/path metaphor and that of the seven churches of Asia in the book of Revelation? Well, the answer has to do with the expression "He who has an ear, let him hear". It is used seven times in Revelation, once in each of the seven messages to the seven churches. It is also used in the eleventh chapter of the book of Matthew, Jesus had this to say about the prophet John the Baptist:

Matthew 11:10
"This is the one about whom it is written, "Behold I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.""

Here, Jesus is referring to the old testament prophecies of Malachi and Isaiah. He goes on to say:

Matthew 11:14-15
"...he himself is Elijah, who is to come. He who has an ear, let him hear."

Obviously, the use of the expression "He who has an ear, let him hear", is meant to point out that there is a hidden meaning in what Jesus was saying about John. Now, consider this verse in the first message to the seven churches of Asia, the message to the church at Ephesus:

Revelation 2:2
I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false;

Notice the use of the term "apostle". An apostle is a messenger or prophet (i.e., a predecessor signal). In the church of Ephesus (sensory cortex), all predecessor signals are tested to see if their predictions come true. I interpret this to mean that the metaphors of the seven churches of Asia are related to the messenger/Messiah/path metaphor.

Left Brain/Right Brain: A Scientific Puzzle

In the last century, medicine has taught us that every human being is actually two persons in one. Our brain consists of a left hemisphere and a right hemisphere connected by a bundle of fibers called the corpus callosum. Most of us have learned that the left hemisphere is responsible for speech processing and symbolic/logical thinking whereas the right hemisphere is more preoccupied with intuitive and holistic subjects. What we were not told is that the right hemisphere tells the left one what to do. That is, the left brain is subservient to the right brain (2). How do I know this? I do because I understand the biblical symbolism that pertains to this subject, as I will explain in the next section.

Anatomy students have known for more than a century that the right brain controls the left side of the body while the left brain controls the right side. Science has no explanation to offer for this rather peculiar arrangement of the nervous system. Indeed, what is the evolutionary advantage of this overly complicated crisscrossing of the nervous pathways? Answer: there is none. Still, there has to be a reason for it.

Left Brain/Right Brain: The Biblical Explanation

So why are the nervous pathways crisscrossed? Does the Bible offer an explanation? I dare say that it does. Consider the following passages:

In the old testament, we often encounter the phrase "God is One." Most people immediately think it means "there is one God." What it really means is that God comprises two complementary opposite persons, a master and a slave. Opposites are one. This is one aspect of the yin-yang duality that I keep making such a big deal about in my work on intelligence. Yin and yang are one. The quoted verses above are of tremendous importance as far as the seven churches are concerned. As we shall see, the manner in which the two hemispheres communicate (I am in the Father and the Father is in me) is explained symbolically in the message to the churches.

The last table above is highly significant because, as we shall see, the seven churches of Asia represents the left hemisphere of the brain which controls the right side of the body. The point here is that there is no physical necessity for the brain to have a crisscrossed nervous system. To sit on the right side of God is a position of honor. As a Christian I believe that, since we were created in the image of God, and since God originally designed the DNA of every living thing and hence their brains, it is only fitting that he should pattern our brains after his own.

The Network

The diagram depicted above shows the major pathways between cell assemblies. The picture reflects my current understanding of the biblical metaphors. It is subject to revision. Note: The diagram pictured above is outdated. An update is in the works.

Falsifiable Predictions

I have prepared a special prediction page where I list all the predictions I derive from my interpretation of the biblical text. I will add to the list as I go along.

Next: Ephesus

1. Note that Markram's paper did not show that there is a time gap between two presynaptic signals, only that an input synapse is strengthened if it receives a spike (signal) a short time before the post-synaptic neuron fires. This is, of course, the learning mechanism. My hypothesis predicts that the post-synaptic neuron fires when it receives a signal from a specific synapse which I call the successor synapse. This prediction is falsifiable in the laboratory.

2. Left brain is subservient to right brain. In keeping with modern scientific practices, this is the second of several testable predictions I will make regarding the brain. It should not be too hard to design an experiment to try to falsify this claim.