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0 pointstheptip6mo ago0 comments

> But; they don't learn

If we took your brain and perfectly digitized it on read-only hardware, would you expect to still “think”?

Do amnesiacs who are incapable of laying down long-term memories not think?

I personally believe that memory formation and learning are one of the biggest cruces for general intelligence, but I can easily imagine thinking occurring without memory. (Yes, this is potentially ethically very worrying.)

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lz4006mo ago

>If we took your brain and perfectly digitized it on read-only hardware, would you expect to still “think”?

it wouldn't work probably, brains constantly alter themselves by forming new connections. Learning is inseparable from our intelligence.

WalterSear6mo ago

Our intelligence, yes. But that doesn't establish it as essential for thought.

lz4006mo ago

I mean, _we_ probably can't think with our wetware on a read-only substrate. It doesn't establish it as essential, just that the only sure example in nature of thought doesn't work that way.

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zeroonetwothree6mo ago

> If we took your brain and perfectly digitized it on read-only hardware, would you expect to still “think”?

Perhaps this is already known, but I would think there is a high chance that our brains require "write access" to function. That is, the very process of neural activity inherently makes modifications to the underlying structure.

theptipOP6mo ago

> a high chance that our brains require "write access" to function

There are multiple learning mechanisms that happen on different time-frames, eg neural plasticity, hippocampus are both longer-term processes for memory consolidation. Whereas the content of “RAM” might be better modeled as a set of fast dynamic weights representing ions and neurotransmitter concentrations.

My hunch is that you could model the latter fast weights in volatile memory, but I wouldn’t count these as “modifying the structure”.

Do you have any particular systems in mind where you have reason to believe that permanent modification is required for brains to function?

xwolfi6mo ago

I wonder why we need to sleep so much though

theptipOP6mo ago

Self-play for memory/skill consolidation, plus flushing out metabolites which can’t be cleaned while consciousness is online?

throwaway-00016mo ago

Rebalancing weights?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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lz4006mo ago

>If we took your brain and perfectly digitized it on read-only hardware, would you expect to still “think”?

it wouldn't work probably, brains constantly alter themselves by forming new connections. Learning is inseparable from our intelligence.

WalterSear6mo ago

Our intelligence, yes. But that doesn't establish it as essential for thought.

lz4006mo ago

I mean, _we_ probably can't think with our wetware on a read-only substrate. It doesn't establish it as essential, just that the only sure example in nature of thought doesn't work that way.

1 more reply

zeroonetwothree6mo ago

> If we took your brain and perfectly digitized it on read-only hardware, would you expect to still “think”?

theptipOP6mo ago

> a high chance that our brains require "write access" to function

My hunch is that you could model the latter fast weights in volatile memory, but I wouldn’t count these as “modifying the structure”.

Do you have any particular systems in mind where you have reason to believe that permanent modification is required for brains to function?

xwolfi6mo ago

I wonder why we need to sleep so much though

theptipOP6mo ago

Self-play for memory/skill consolidation, plus flushing out metabolites which can’t be cleaned while consciousness is online?

throwaway-00016mo ago

Rebalancing weights?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse