2 comments

  • bambax 2 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:

    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/these-decapita...

    • Earw0rm 1 hour 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 54 minutes ago
        Did you know human overies contain neurons? I suppose memories are not stored there :-) but still the fact is rather surprising.
        • j45 52 minutes ago
          The heart has neurons in it too.
    • IsTom 1 hour ago
      At least spinal cord has a kind of memory related to movement, but that's something else than episodic memory obviously.
    • boston_clone 1 hour ago
      I think the evidence is strong, here. Quite difficult to form new memories without a brain!
  • Animats 2 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 2 hours ago
      i'm sorry, I cannot agree that anything like that can create "originality".
      • taneq 1 hour 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.
        • boston_clone 1 hour ago
          A massive chasm exists between good, creative ideas and ideas that aren’t nonsense.
          • CrimsonRain 1 hour ago
            That's why most people are not creative, and tbqh, rather dumb