Static knowledge is one aspect of knowledge...

such as the contents of a book. A person can hold knowledge in his brain. A hard disk can be full of knowledge. Applied to our model of a neuron, this idea of knowledge would have to be interpreted as something stored within the neuron. In biological cells this something might be some sort of molecular structure. In a working-place neuron, this something might be books, computer files, knowledge stored in a human brain etc. This aspect of knowledge may play an important role in neural networks.

Neuroscientists still discuss whether all knowledge in the brain is merely stored as synaptic weighings or whether knowledge is also stored within neurons. In any case, synaptic weighing plays a major role.

and can be embedded within synaptic knowledge...

Imagine the maintenance department of a medium sized mine.

...working the following way:

Imagine some people of the maintance department of a medium sized mine. Each one of these people has much knowledge in his brain and probably around him in the form of books, papers or computer files. Each person, too, holds certain views on how things should run and these views are not ususally totally compatible with one another.

Final decisions are taken by Erwin Spengler, the head of department. He cannot possibly have enough experience to satisfactorily assess all the advice given to him.

But he has a strong sense who should be listened to in which situation. His task as team leader consists in deciding which pieces of knowledge and which philosophies contribute best to the solution of which problems. He groups people to form a team, he can appoint a team leader, he can organize and control meetings etc.

He, metaphorically speaking, adjusts the synapses influencing information flow within his department in response to certain questions.

It can easily be imagined how much problem solving ability can be represented by the right tuning of the synapses. Figure out yourself how valuable it would be

• to know who should first be consulted in case of an unexpected breakdown of a conveyor-belt system,
• to know who should best be grouped together in a team to develop a new diagnosis system based on fuzzy-logic,
• to know whose opinion should be given more weight in deciding on the right belt-type.

The weight respective neurons are given in dealing with certain questions also reflects knowledge about external reality. If, for instance, short term shareholder-value is the main factor determining company success information issued by someone like Max Ferguson should be given more weight than information issued by Arthur McGregor.