THE BRAIN

AS A
NEURAL
NETWORK
The human brain can be described
as a biological neural network—an
interconnected web of neurons
transmitting elaborate patterns of
electrical signals. Dendrites
receive input signals and, based on
those inputs, fire an output signal
via an axon. Or something like
that. How the human brain
actually works is an elaborate and
complex mystery
Developing engaging
animated systems with
code does not require
scientific rigor or
accuracy, as we’ve
learned throughout this
book. We can simply be
inspired by the idea of
brain function.
Computer scientists have long been
inspired by the human brain. In
1943, Warren S. McCulloch, a
neuroscientist, and Walter Pitts, a
logician, developed the first
conceptual model of an artificial
neural network. In their paper, "A
logical calculus of the ideas
imminent in nervous activity,” they
describe the concept of a neuron, a
single cell living in a network of
cells that receives inputs, processes
those inputs, and generates an
output.
Neural networks

• Individual neurons cannot carry enough information to determine the taste of a bite of food
or the color of an object. Color processing, for example, depends on just four-labeled lines
carrying information about red, green, blue, and yellow light. However, we can distinguish
millions of colors by comparing the relative activity in these four pathways. In other cases,
the brain combines the activity from a number of neurons. A good example is the
discrimination of sound in the lower frequency range. Neurons from the ear “follow”
frequencies up to about 5,000 cycles per seconds, but you know that a single neurons cannot
fire more often than about 1,000 times per second. However, some neurons will be firing on
each wave of the sound, and the brain must pool their activity to determine the sounds
frequency.
Neural networks

• This processing requires complex networks of neurons; neural networks are groups of
neurons that function together to carry out a process. Neural networks are where the
most complex neutral processing – the “computing” work of the brain – is carried out.
Sometimes, these networks involve a relatively small number of neurons in a single area,
such as groups of neurons in a part of the rat’s brain called the hippocampus. During an
experimenter-imposed delay in maze running, these store the rat’s preceding choices and
calculate its next choice. They perform so reliably that the researcher can use their
activity to predict which way the rat will turn after the delay.
• Because researchers have found these networks to be discouragingly complex and rather
inaccessible, some are creating artificial neural networks on computers.
 Scientist locate “internal compass” in the
brain
by: Xinhua
• LONDON. KAZINFORM
• The part of the brain that tells us the direction to travel when we
navigate has been identified by British scientists, a study showed on
Friday. It has long been known that some people are better at
navigating than others, but until now it has been unclear why. The
latest study, led by researchers from University College London
(UCL), shows that the strength and reliability of "homing signals" in
the human brain vary among people and can predict navigational
ability, Xinhua reports.
 Scientist locate “internal compass” in the
brain
Xinhua
• The research reveals that the part of the brain that signals which
direction you are facing, called the entorhinal region, is also used to
signal the direction in which you need to travel to reach your
destination.
 Scientist locate “internal compass” in the
brain
Xinhua
• In other words, the researchers have found where our "sense of
direction" comes from in the brain and worked out a way to measure
it using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In the study, 16
volunteers were asked to familiarise themselves with a simple virtual
courtyard, and navigate towards certain objects placed in four
corners of the virtual room. They were then asked to navigate the
area, from memory alone, while their brains were being scanned by
an MRI machine.
 Scientist locate “internal compass” in the
brain
Xinhua
• The scans revealed the entorhinal region "fired up" consistently
during the tasks. The stronger the signal in the region, the better the
volunteers were at finding their way around correctly. "Our results
provide evidence to support the idea that your internal 'compass'
readjusts as you move through the environment," Dr Martin
Chadwick, lead author of the study, said. "For example, if you turn
left then your entorhinal region should process this to shift your
facing direction and goal direction accordingly," he added.
RHDA: Read,
Highlight, Define, 1. How is the “sense of direction” determined
Answer by the brain?

Go back to the article “Scientists 2. How does “internal compass” readjust?

Locate ‘Internal Compass’ in the 3. What is your entorhinal region?
Brain.” highlight the unfamiliar
words. List them and find their
meanings using any dictionary.
Answer the following questions.
Stephen Hawking
BRITISH PHYSICIST
WRITTEN BY: 
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Alternative Title: Steven William Hawking
STEPHEN HAWKING –
Hawking studied physics at
University College, Oxford (B.A.,
1962), and Trinity Hall, Cambridge
(Ph.D., 1966). He was elected a
research fellow at Gonville and Caius
College at Cambridge. In the early
1960s Hawking contracted 
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, an
incurable degenerative neuromuscular
disease. He continued to work despite
the disease’s progressively disabling
effects.

Stephen W. Hawking (centre) experiencing zero gravity aboard a modified Boeing 727, April
2007.
NASA
Hawking worked primarily in the field of general relativity and particularly on the physics of
black holes. In 1971 he suggested the formation, following the big bang, of numerous objects
containing as much as one billion tons of mass but occupying only the space of a proton.
These objects, called mini black holes, are unique in that their immense mass and gravity
require that they be ruled by the laws of relativity, while their minute size requires that the
laws of quantum mechanics apply to them also. In 1974 Hawking proposed that, in
accordance with the predictions of quantum theory, black holes emit subatomic particles until
they exhaust their energy and finally explode. Hawking’s work greatly spurred efforts to
theoretically delineate the properties of black holes, objects about which it was previously
thought that nothing could be known. His work was also important because it showed these
properties’ relationship to the laws of classical thermodynamics and quantum mechanics.
Hawking’s contributions to physics earned him many exceptional honours.
In 1974 the Royal Society elected him one of its youngest fellows. He
became professor of gravitational physics at Cambridge in 1977, and in
1979 he was appointed to Cambridge’s Lucasian professorship of
mathematics, a post once held by Isaac Newton. Hawking was made a
Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1982 and a Companion of
Honour in 1989. He also received the Copley Medal from the Royal Society
in 2006 and the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. In 2008 he
accepted a visiting research chair at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical
Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
His publications include The Large Scale
Structure of Space-Time (1973;
coauthored with G.F.R. Ellis), Superspace
and Supergravity (1981), The Very Early
Universe (1983), and the best sellers A
Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang
to Black Holes (1988), The Universe in a
Nutshell (2001), A Briefer History of
Time (2005), and The Grand
Design (2010; coauthored with Leonard
Mlodinow).
OUR CONNECTIONS
AND RELATIONSHIPS
 1. Form groups with five members.
ACTIVITY: 2. Present a song or dance or drama
about connections or relationships.
3. Depict how connections and
relationships are indispensable.
The parable of the river: bedtime reading for the education reform (A.K.A. "Repair")
community
 1. Once upon a time, there was a small village on the
edge of a river. The people there were good, and life in
the village was good.
STORY ANALYSIS 2. One day a villager noticed a baby floating down the
AND CREATIVE river. The villager quickly swam out to save the baby
DRAWING from drowning.
The Story of the River 3. The next day this same villager noticed two babies
in the river. He called for help, and both babies were
rescued from the swift waters.
4. And the following day four babies were seen
caught in the turbulent current. And then eight, then
more, and then still more!
 5. The villagers organized themselves quickly, setting
up watchtowers and training teams of swimmers who
could resist the swift waters and rescue babies. Rescue
squads were soon working twenty-four hours a day.
STORY ANALYSIS And each day the number of helpless babies floating
AND CREATIVE down the river increased.
DRAWING
6. The villagers organized themselves efficiently. The
The Story of the River rescue squads were now snatching many children each
day. Though not all the babies, now very numerous,
could be saved, the villagers felt they were doing well
to save as many as they could each day.
7. Indeed, the village priest blessed them in their good
work. And life in the village continued on that basis.
STORY ANALYSIS
8. One day, however, someone raised the question,
AND CREATIVE
DRAWING “But where are all these babies coming form? Let’s
organize a team to head upstream to find out who’s
The Story of the River throwing all of these babies into the river in the first
place!”
 1. If you were the villager in the story,
what would you do?
2. What is the root problem?
ACTIVITY:
3. Look at your drawing. Is the root
problem in the picture? Why not?
4. Are you brave enough to find out?
Are your willing to take the risk for
your neighbors?
 THE RIVER BABIES

Once upon a time, there was a small village on the edge of a river. Life in the
village was busy. There were people growing food and people teaching the children to
make blankets and people making meals.
One day a villager took a break from harvesting food and noticed a baby floating
down the river toward the village. She couldn't believe her eyes! She heard crying in
the distance and looked downstream to see that two babies had already floated by the
village. She looked around at the other villagers working nearby. "Does anyone else
see that baby?" she asked.
One villager heard the woman, but continued working. "Yes!" yelled a man who
had been making soup. "Oh, this is terrible!" A woman who had been building a
campfire shouted, "Look, there are even more upstream!" Indeed, there were three
more babies coming around the bend.
"How long have these babies been floating by?" asked another villager. No one knew
for sure, but some people thought they might have seen something in the river earlier.
They were busy at the time and did not have time to investigate.
They quickly organized themselves to rescue the babies. Watchtowers were built
on both sides of the shore and swimmers were coordinated to maintain shifts of rescue
teams that maintained 24-hour surveillance of the river. Ziplines with baskets attached
were stretched across the river to get even more babies to safety quickly.
The number of babies floating down the river only seemed to increase. The
villagers built orphanages and they taught even more children to make blankets and
they increased the amount of food they grew to keep the babies housed, warm and
fed. Life in the village carried on.
 "No one knows," said another villager. "But I say we organize a team to
go upstream and find how who's throwing these babies in the river."
Not everyone was in agreement. "But we need people to help us pull the
babies out of the river," said one villager. "That's right!" said another
villager. "And who will be here to cook for them and look after them if a
bunch of people go upstream?"
The Council chose to let the village decide. If you were a villager, what
would your vote be? Do you send a team upstream?
Then one day at a meeting of the Village Council, a villager asked, "But
where are all these babies coming from?“
The story we read is about the importance of being aware of the world around us (providing
humanitarian relief as well as looking at root causes of injustice.)
• What do you think about the people who thought they saw something earlier, but did not
investigate?
• Why do you think one villager heard the woman, but turned away?
• Who would you like to be in this story and why?

Say, in your own words:

Some people never see injustice in the world. Maybe they do not know how to recognize it
or maybe they are too focused on their own lives. Author Douglas Adams, in his book Life, the
Universe, and Everything, describes this as a SEP, or Somebody Else's Problem. He says a SEP
is something we can't see, or don't see, or our brain doesn't let us see, because we think that it's
somebody else's problem. The brain just edits it out-it's like a blind spot. Even if you look at it
directly you may not see it unless you know what it is. Your only hope is to catch it by surprise
out of the corner of your eye. This is because it relies on people's natural predisposition not to
see anything they don't want to, weren't expecting, or can't explain.
 Some people see injustice, but ignore it thinking it is not their problem or that someone else
will handle it. Others see terrible things happening and they organize to help the people affected.
Still others are like the villager who decides to head upstream, find, and try to eradicate the root
cause. They want to stop the babies from getting in the river in the first place. The reality is that
we need both of these last types: we need people to provide services to fulfil needs right now
and we need justice makers who work to make sure all people have equal access to the
resources they need to fill their needs. We need many people, working together and working
separately, to bring about true change in the world.
Everything in the story started with the villager who saw the babies and realized there was a
problem. Being aware of injustice is the first step toward creating a more just, peaceful world
for everyone. Getting babies out of a river is an extreme example. Other injustices may not be
life threatening. They may not be as obvious as the injustice in the story. Awareness is the first
step: you need to be aware of injustice before you can do anything to correct it.