@pavelromashkin just breached this topic again, so I thought I would continue the conversation here.
I think @ycui is leading in the right direction above. The temporal dimension allows brains to explore spatial dimensions. Without the temporal dimension, we would have one spatial view of the universe, no dynamism, no discovery, no intelligence. It would never change. It’s a pretty boring existence.
Life has evolved to process spatial information over time and take action upon it. Without time, there is no life (as we know it). HTM is trying to mimic something occurring in living brains, and the brain is entirely based upon temporal processing of life happening in front of its sensors.
Without time, you are just a dumb rock.
So from my standpoint, the temporal / spatial combination of sparse neuron activations in response to the stimulus of life is crucial to HTM.