Laurent, That paper and associated write-up are a bit exaggerated to say the least. All it really states (of value) is that contrary to our belief that synapses could only take on 2 or 3 distinct values (which has never really been considered wholly factual), they can in fact take on many more values (they "calculated" about 27-some possible states). However, IIRC, HTM already uses continuous synaptic values (and if not, it probably should). The "10X increase in memory" is really very hand-wavy, and is fully reliant on the neuron's ability to discriminate between those now-discovered additional synaptic states. The problem with that hypothesis is that neurons already have very stochastic synapses, and the neurons themselves are themselves quite noisy when integrating signals, so the ability to utilize those minute differences in synaptic strength is very unlikely. Am I saying it's not true, and the researchers are just bluffing? No, but I'm saying that paper really doesn't have a very strong argument for its case.
Julian Samaroo On Sun, Jan 24, 2016 at 1:48 AM, Laurent Julliard <[email protected]> wrote: > Guys, > > I came across this article ( > http://www.kurzweilai.net/memory-capacity-of-brain-is-10-times-more-than-previously-thought) > and I was wondering if what they discover on synapse behavior could either > improve in any way the current model of synapses in HTM and/or confirm the > way synapses are potentiated today through the management of their > permanence value ? > > -- > Laurent Julliard > Twitter @lrjay > >
