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kator 2 hours ago [-]
I think the most interesting thing is that it took 15 years for people to apparently take this seriously. And another 40 to recognize its impact. The original paper[1] was from 1982...
Having been in software development for 45 years, I find this crazy. Maybe it's because in our world, it often takes a month for something to spread from "interesting" to the new technology of the day, or the new way of doing things.
It used to be slower in software development as well. The internet and the exponentially increasing number of software developers accelerated it. And of course new hardware that made things practical that were only a theoretical possibility before.
kator 18 minutes ago [-]
True, that said, I downloaded and compiled Perl in 1987 from comp.sources.misc, even back then, things moved at light speed compared to health and medical.
bambax 5 hours ago [-]
> Every memory begins with tiny changes inside the brain
Maybe. But the brain is not the only place where memory is stored. Flat worms remember things (and skills!) after their head has been cut off and they regrew it:
"Every memory begins with tiny changes inside the brain. A discovery that helped explain those changes has earned neuroscientist Oswald Steward one of science’s highest honors.
Steward received the 2026 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience, a USD 1 million award and one of science’s most prestigious awards, for research that transformed scientists’ understanding of how the brain learns and stores memories."
And that's what it took. One comment on hackernews and the prize was retracted. HN at its best! ;)
christophilus 48 minutes ago [-]
Well, it does seem that memories may be embedded in the nervous system as well as the brain, so I don’t think the OP is wrong. You sometimes hear of heart transplant patients having other people’s memories / preferences. So, it’s not good evidence, but it’s a possibility.
Earw0rm 5 hours ago [-]
Flatworms branched off our side of the animal tree of life very early on. They're on the same side as molluscs, some of whom (cephalopods) are famous for having a more distributed nervous system.
Granted though many/most organs are stateful and somewhat adaptive - in a sense they'll "remember" what happened. Even plants possess that to varying degrees.
Roark66 4 hours ago [-]
Did you know human overies contain neurons? I suppose memories are not stored there :-) but still the fact is rather surprising.
adrianN 2 hours ago [-]
I believe there are tastebuds in your colon too.
j45 4 hours ago [-]
The heart has neurons in it too.
IsTom 5 hours ago [-]
At least spinal cord has a kind of memory related to movement, but that's something else than episodic memory obviously.
Zardoz84 2 hours ago [-]
We found that some kind of gigant unicelular life can remember where was food.
boston_clone 5 hours ago [-]
I think the evidence is strong, here. Quite difficult to form new memories without a brain!
Animats 6 hours ago [-]
Great result on the biochemistry of memory storage. Then they venture into philosophy: "They still struggle to explain the spark that transforms information into insight."
Go watch Stable Diffusion iteratively transform noise into originality.
project2501a 5 hours ago [-]
i'm sorry, I cannot agree that anything like that can create "originality".
coldtea 2 hours ago [-]
As opposed to what? Water and tissue?
taneq 5 hours ago [-]
Creativity can be thought of as a combination of two things: A random idea generator, and a nonsense filter. Generate new random results ideas, filter out the nonsense ones, and you’ve generated good ideas.
itsalwaysgood 1 hours ago [-]
Creativity also requires information. And Information is discovered. We can only generate random ideas from what we know. We can't imagine something we've never sensed, or know. You can't imagine a color you've never seen without recalling known colors. You can freely mix ideas due to your imagination.
But when we discover new information, we must decide whether the information is useful. Otherwise the information is considered noise.
We give weight to decisions: time spent pondering, considering, and the more weight we give, the better the decision. Almost always the idea is measured in usefulness.
Sound familiar?
boston_clone 5 hours ago [-]
A massive chasm exists between good, creative ideas and ideas that aren’t nonsense.
coldtea 2 hours ago [-]
Not that massive.
A lot of good, creative ideas have been called out and derived as nonsense or crazy. Many still are.
CrimsonRain 4 hours ago [-]
That's why most people are not creative, and tbqh, rather dumb
Having been in software development for 45 years, I find this crazy. Maybe it's because in our world, it often takes a month for something to spread from "interesting" to the new technology of the day, or the new way of doing things.
[1] https://www.jneurosci.org/content/jneuro/2/3/284.full.pdf
Maybe. But the brain is not the only place where memory is stored. Flat worms remember things (and skills!) after their head has been cut off and they regrew it:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/these-decapita...
Steward received the 2026 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience, a USD 1 million award and one of science’s most prestigious awards, for research that transformed scientists’ understanding of how the brain learns and stores memories."
And that's what it took. One comment on hackernews and the prize was retracted. HN at its best! ;)
Granted though many/most organs are stateful and somewhat adaptive - in a sense they'll "remember" what happened. Even plants possess that to varying degrees.
Go watch Stable Diffusion iteratively transform noise into originality.
But when we discover new information, we must decide whether the information is useful. Otherwise the information is considered noise.
We give weight to decisions: time spent pondering, considering, and the more weight we give, the better the decision. Almost always the idea is measured in usefulness.
Sound familiar?
A lot of good, creative ideas have been called out and derived as nonsense or crazy. Many still are.