How big an opportunity is the external memory?
Before the advent of the written word, the story goes, humans had to either store all their memories in their own heads, or by oral tradition passed down through designated members of their tribes. With trade came notation of facts and figures, and later alphabets, books and libraries. With them came the modern brain, which treats recorded knowledge as an extension of itself.
Throughout these developments, previous generations have grumbled that each new advance leaves us… Continue Reading
Technology is getting more human-like: Audience, Numenta and more
Some very smart people believe machines will take over — directing human affairs — sometime soon, perhaps within the next thirty years.
So much malarkey, you might think, until you consider the sorts of technologies being developed lately — some of which are starting to replicate human intelligence, one step at a time.
There’s Silicon Valley’s Numenta, the company started by Palm founder Jeff Hawkins, which is building a computer system that aims to think like the… Continue Reading