It is not possible to imitate the human brain on a non-biological object with today’s technology. But scientists have shown in their new study that at least one of the most basic cognitive abilities of humans, learning and memory, can be imitated on non-biological objects.
Using nanowires that are only one-1000th the thickness of a human hair, scientists discovered that the wires begin to learn and remember their previous movements. These wires did not contain any biological elements, but consisted only of highly conductive silver.
Teller manages to keep his previous moves in his memory, learning from his mistakes:
It’s pretty unusual to expect anything non-biological to learn or retain something. But in experiments with these wires, the wires responded to electrical signals and formed networks within themselves. Moreover, these established networks “remembered” at least 7 steps they took in previous signals.
Moreover, these 7 steps were equivalent to the average number of information the human brain could hold in its working memory. This number in the human brain is the “Magic number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits of our information processing capacity,” published in 1994. It was featured in the article.
But how do strings learn and remember things?
The wires reacted like neurons when given an electrical signal, acting like ‘synapses’ in neurons. But the learning and memory of the strings did not occur on their own.
After the scientists gave the electrical signal, they compared the result they expected to the result of the wire mesh. In the light of the data obtained, the connection points of the wires were strengthened or dulled, thus approaching the desired result.
The memory of the strings was seen by performing the ‘n-back’ test, which is used to measure memory in humans. As part of the test, a series of stimuli was presented to the wire mesh, and with each new stimulus, the previous steps were compared. It was seen that the network repeated at least 7 steps in each signal.
The new study of scientists shed light on the ability to provide learning and memory-making abilities to physical equipment. The research has been published in Science Advances.
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