Nice article, but the methods they used seem more like they just hand wrote a function for the task and called the function neurons based on how it was implemented. It is encouraging though that a simple network can be found for a complicated task like this, kind of like the Tiny Recursive Model that came out last year.
Research question: does it make sense to make a new family of logic gates using neurons? My intuition says there is a rich texture/fabric to uncover here. The best analogy on hand right now is legos: rather than 2-knotch legos [standard gates like NAND, XOR] what about some sort of new, irreducible gates that are bigger "legos"? Been a while since I played with logic gates but my intuition says there is something lurking below the surface. A new class of irreducible gates, maybe cross-connections? Like compacted multilayer gates? Think SHA-512, how certain bits feed into different layers of the "puzzle". Optimistic this thought-amalgam serves you in your continued research :)
I started going down the path of building a ripple carry adder already (which seems to work fine). Then I was going to try for a full on ALU, then some sort of ISA that sits on top of it all.
I have no idea what the end result will look like if it all comes together. Hopefully I'll find some weird primitives along the way. :D
It's very hand-wavy, but I'm kinda hoping I can somehow have a machine manually constructed out of neurons that can naturally interact with one built with looser hebbian learning rules.
> The output of the first neuron is fed into the second neuron, whose outputis connected to an actuator which applies the specified amount of torque to the handlebars. As inputs to the network, we provide the desired heading θ_d, as well as the current heading θ and the degree to which the bicycle is currently leaning γ, along with their derivatives
˙θ and ˙γ.
It's somewhat important to consider the inputs, because if you want to make a classifier that can classify "inside circle vs outside circle" but the network needs to derive the nonlinearity itself, then you end up needing a more complex network
Eg on the playground^, see how many neurons you need to train a circle without using more than x1 and x2?
And yet, if you give the network x1^2 and x2^2, it can solve it with minimal additional neurons.
(2004)
Previously:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19196664 (25 comments)
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16215130 (87 comments)
This looks like they simply reinvented PID control. The inputs to the beyond are desired states minus actual states, which is basically how PID works.
Nice article, but the methods they used seem more like they just hand wrote a function for the task and called the function neurons based on how it was implemented. It is encouraging though that a simple network can be found for a complicated task like this, kind of like the Tiny Recursive Model that came out last year.
I had fun reading this. Thanks for sharing.
With dendritic compartments, this seems like a waste of a perfectly good neuron that we could productively use elsewhere. ;)
Note that a SINGLE neuron can compute nonlinear functions like XOR.
Shameless plug: If anyone is interested, I did a post a while back on how neurons can act as logic gates:
https://blog.typeobject.com/posts/2025-neural-logic-gates/
This article builds on the first and creates a half adder out of neurons:
https://blog.typeobject.com/posts/2026-timing-is-the-bit/
Research question: does it make sense to make a new family of logic gates using neurons? My intuition says there is a rich texture/fabric to uncover here. The best analogy on hand right now is legos: rather than 2-knotch legos [standard gates like NAND, XOR] what about some sort of new, irreducible gates that are bigger "legos"? Been a while since I played with logic gates but my intuition says there is something lurking below the surface. A new class of irreducible gates, maybe cross-connections? Like compacted multilayer gates? Think SHA-512, how certain bits feed into different layers of the "puzzle". Optimistic this thought-amalgam serves you in your continued research :)
Yes!
I started going down the path of building a ripple carry adder already (which seems to work fine). Then I was going to try for a full on ALU, then some sort of ISA that sits on top of it all.
I have no idea what the end result will look like if it all comes together. Hopefully I'll find some weird primitives along the way. :D
It's very hand-wavy, but I'm kinda hoping I can somehow have a machine manually constructed out of neurons that can naturally interact with one built with looser hebbian learning rules.
So can we have self-driving bicycles?
Yes and they'll have one of those wetware computers on board
Recumbent bike with lidar and maps? Sign me up.
What about drawing a pelican riding a bicycle?
> The output of the first neuron is fed into the second neuron, whose outputis connected to an actuator which applies the specified amount of torque to the handlebars. As inputs to the network, we provide the desired heading θ_d, as well as the current heading θ and the degree to which the bicycle is currently leaning γ, along with their derivatives ˙θ and ˙γ.
It's somewhat important to consider the inputs, because if you want to make a classifier that can classify "inside circle vs outside circle" but the network needs to derive the nonlinearity itself, then you end up needing a more complex network
Eg on the playground^, see how many neurons you need to train a circle without using more than x1 and x2?
And yet, if you give the network x1^2 and x2^2, it can solve it with minimal additional neurons.
^ https://playground.tensorflow.org/#activation=tanh&batchSize...
The instability ink-lines look like a flower blooming.
Observation: 2 neurons, 2 wheels. One for each?
My neurons still don't get themselves: What kind of processing happens INSIDE neurons?