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\'3;↓Q\CSTANFORD UNIVERSITY
\F3\CSTANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305
\F4



ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LABORATORY\←L\-R\/'7;\+R\→.\→S   Telephone:
COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT\←S\→.415-497-4430
\F0\C20 January 1975




Larry Stelmack
MIT
Station Box 158
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

Dear Mr. Stelmack:

\JI am quite sure that what you suggest has not been done, because as yet:

	1.  the I/O coding of signals in a monkey's visual cortex is not known
with sufficient precision.

	2.  it is not known precisely what information is contained in the
output of the visual cortex or how it is coded.

	3.  there is no present way of making connections to large numbers
of fibers in, say, the optic nerve.  Connections to a smaller number of
fibers can be made but cannot be kept alive very long.

	4.  it is not yet possible to keep the monkey's brain alive apart
from the monkey for very long.

Therefore, I think anything written in this direction would be quite speculative.
However, I do not wish to assert that these things will never be possible.\.
\←L\→S\←R\-L\/'2;\+L\→L
Sincerely yours,





John McCarthy
Director, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Professor of Computer Science
\←S\→L
JMC:pw

file:  stelma.le1[let,jmc]:SU-AI