What the Cat Knew

Proverbs 16:23
“The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips.”

While modern computers can do increasingly amazing things, they would not compete well on even a simple task with an animal.

For example, you can teach a computer where the front door of your home is and where the furniture is in the living room. Give it wheels, park it at the front door and tell it to find the easy chair. No problem. Now move the furniture around and repeat the command to the computer. Now it is hopelessly lost. Move your furniture around, and the cat will still find your easy chair. Today’s computers can do a few limited things that a cat’s brain can do. But such a computer needs its own power supply and 140,000 central processing units. And even this arrangement is over 80 times slower than a cat’s brain. In human and cat brains, memory and learning are possible because neurons are all connected to many other neurons. Thus, either a human or a cat can instantly recognize a familiar face. Engineers have invented a transistor replacement called a memristor which gives a computer the ability to learn and remember. Even using memristors, it would take a huge supercomputer with its own power supply much longer to recognize faces than we do.

Memory and the ability to learn is a gift of God, the source of all knowledge.

Prayer:
Father, I thank You for giving me the ability to learn and then teaching me Your truth in Your Word. Amen.

Notes:
http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/plainstory.php?id=763.3, University of Michigan News Service, 4/14/10, “Cat brain: A step toward the electronic equivalent.”