Crystal Mimics Learning and Forgetting

nautil.us

39 points·dnetesn··6 comments

"This bit of silicon mimics learning and forgetting"

The philosophical implications of this research is not what's interesting. Computers are not brains but they mimic a lot of its behaviour. The title is mostly clickbait.

I think the idea is that this is found in nature as a single material. Silicon doesn't do anything remotely brain-like until humans etch intricate patterns in it and run precise electrical currents through them.

I think the use of neural networks is a kind of boring approach to studying this crystal. Of course the algorithm it uses is going to be more adaptable than an arbitrary algorithm selected by the researcher, otherwise they would have chosen a different algorithm to prove the truism.

I'm more interested in hearing about the physical mechanism by which a crystal manages to store and forget information, and some theory about how this could have come to exist without resorting to life-based arguments like survival of the fittest or evolution.

Discoveries like this combined with discoveries about thermodynamics models mimicking "societal" behavior like cooperation will change how we define sentience and conscious "life" and life processes.

The standards for what qualifies as "learning" appears to be very low here. A low endurance memristor would qualify here.

am I the only one imagining some crystal based lifeform out there, somewhere?

If you put a black box over it, the crystal is exhibit one type of learning mode that complex learner like humans has many modes; the ability to adapt and filter

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