The reference to supervision goes to the nature of the online learning. HTM online learns the delta against the contents of the memory where RL has to get some feedback if it is doing the right thing or not. The nature of what is learned by the HTM online learning is distinctly different. RL spoon feeds information from the trainer so I don’t see this a running unattended. HTM can be left to its own devices and learns purely off the data that is being fed to it. It is a different degree of “online” in the sense of an autonomous agent.
As far as the utility of what operation is performed - I agree to a certain point. HTM as it exists is not a complete system; it must be combined with something more to make it do something useful.
I violently disagree with your assertion that the priors are encoded in the cortex. I firmly believe that this is completely the realm of the old lizard brain. Cortex is a pure data sponge.
These two threads outline the broad strokes of what I think is necessary to harness the cortex algorithm into a functional system. There are many moving parts. Many of the details are not included; some are elucidated elsewhere, some are a work in progress.
This is the “big picture” view:
It takes the accompanying posts to explain how the various blocks work.
This post is the broad strokes of what is in the orange block:
You demonstrate an analytical mind; I am interested in your criticisms of my thoughts on this.