I’m choosing a musical one not because of my love of music, but actually because the physics involved in this makes the metaphor work. Let my mind be like a bizarre musical instrument, my neurons little strings all at different tensions, all connected to each other. Somehow the vibrations of these strings set off other vibrations in other strings and by a series of conducted vibrations and interferences, you have “thought”. An artificial intelligence researcher specialising in neural networks might call these string tensions “weights” within the network.
The phone rings. It’s Mark. I wasn’t expecting to hear from him till next week.
“Hi, Maz, yeah… any chance you want to earn a little cash on Sunday?”
“Uh… what’s the gig?” knowing that if it’s Mark then it must be a gig.
“I’ve got a three-/four-piece jazz band that needs taking from [deepest darkest Yorkshire] to Leeds, then to Chester… oh, shit, but you said you’re going to The Wendyhouse tonight… no, shit, that doesn’t work. Sorry mate…”
