Is there a Best Way to understand data?

[Bitking]

@jordan.kay

I’ve been wondering lately about how much of the HTM system (data structure + algorithm of how the brain processes data) approximates the ideal way to manage data and how much of it is an expression of physical constraints.

I have been thinking about the same things from the “bottom up” for a while now.
I like that you are taking this from the “top down.”

This was were I started and it burned out without much going much further:

What is the Basic Cortical Column Computation?

I struggle to pin down exactly what it is that a macro-column is doing; there is a lot going on here. Pattern matching (by pattern recall) Novelty detection (by pattern recall mismatch) Pattern learning (by novelty triggering learning) Anomaly signaling (by sequence mismatch mechanism) Sequence learning (by anomaly signal triggering learning) Prediction (by sequence learning) “Memory” (by the collective action of these mechanisms?) So we add these ensemble macro behaviors: Classifier (by pa…

From an earlier thread that was slightly related - how much computation does a critter need for the hardware it is equipped with and the environment it inhabits? This is the computation that must be performed with the spine & lizard brain augmented with special hardware like the cortex. (a math coprocessor?)

Thought Experiment / Consciousness & Awareness

Back in the day I used to play a game with my nerd buddies, C-Robots. This affected me greatly and shaped my thoughts on how to parse what was going on in the command and control system of living critters. With the sensors and motor units available you had to build a machine that could find an enemy unit, engage & destroy it, and not run into walls and kill yourself. Once you get used to thinking like that it frames how you see these same problems being solved in meat machines. Take an …