I think we must expect a parting of minds at this point. Artificial Intelligence researchers do not want to be bothered with the messy details of wet brains. Should a builder of machines that can fly study how birds fly? But, amazingly, some computer science folks have started to come around to the evolutionary approach. Artificial Life research is a step in the right direction. Still, we can ask, to what extent should artificial life researchers pay attention to the biology of brains? Again, most such people will probably not want to get bogged down in the fussy details of wet brains. I think it is going to be up to biologists and a few wacko AI folks to take a road less traveled: the construction of mind models based on brain models that are based on the best information that neurobiology can offer. In addition to people who are AI researchers, there is the issue of folks such as psychologists who call themselves Cognitive Scientists. As mentioned above, the degree to which some people have accepted the "simple, non-biological neuron" approach used in many PDP models of cognitive processes has been nicely shown in "The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul: A Philosophical Journey into the Brain" by Paul M. Churchland. In a few cases, Cognitive Scientists have begun to rebel against this type of modeling. See "Connectionism, Confusion, and Cognitive Science" by Michael R.W. Dawson & Kevin S. Shamanski. "The homogeneity of processors assumption must be abandoned, and in its place should be processing units and connections that have diverse and dynamic properties." I could not agree more.

It is within the rather restricted domain of making biologically realistic neural network models that Edelman should be viewed. As an aside, there will always be room for communicators who can try to explain Edelman's approach to the bulk of the AI and cognitive science community. Doing so may result in some converts and at least a bit of cooperation between these fundamentally different approaches to mind. As mentioned above, there are few people indeed who have made intelligent comments on Edelman, one is Robert P. Pula (where did your web page go?).
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