Human Minds and Data Streams
Artificial Memories More Real Than Ours
Published in
4 min readMar 26, 2023
Our brains have never smelled a rose, seen a flower, or walked a garden. You may remember these things, but only because cells elsewhere in your body have sent signals to cells in your head that your brain then interpreted in those ways.
- Our noses have cells that sense smells and send signals to brain cells about what they have smelled. The brain did not smell.
- Our eyes have cells that sense light and send signals to brain cells about what they have seen. The brain did not see.
- Our ear canals have cells that sense motion and send signals to brain cells about how we have moved. The brain did not sense motion.
All we learn from external stimuli is sensed and converted into a signal that our brain then processes. Some of that processing leads to memories — memories of the signals.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) learn similarly. Their memories are as real as our memories and sometimes better.
