Orientation memory
The organism has two kinds of memory: Action
memory and orientation
memory. The newborn is equipped with an action memory, its
task is to create an orientation memory and it starts to move. First it
moves its extremities some time later, its head, then its body and so
on. Movement is the prerequisite for creating an orientation memory since
it rescues the baby from isolation and enables it to interact. Movement
and interaction generate knowledge.
The baby is equipped with many (really many) sensors and the purpose of
orientation memory is to associate between sensors and movement.
Pain is the most important sensor. The baby lies on its back and feels
the pain caused by a small toy in the crib. Since lacking an orientation
memory it cannot relieve its pain and starts crying, which mobilizes the
orientation memory of its mother to relieve its pain.
Orientation memory is an ongoing process. It is volatile
and emerges. It has inputs and outputs. Inputs are provided by the senses.
Outputs are either fed into the action memory or destroyed. The
conscious part of orientation memory is in the mind, the unconscious
part, in the WOB (Wisdom of the
Body).
Suppose that you decide to become a piano player. First you store the keyboard
image in your orientation memory. Then you consciously place each finger
at the proper place and push. Your first task is to create in your orientation
memory a sub-process which will associate between finger position
sensors and movements. As you practice, more and more such associations
are output into the action memory. Improper fingering will be destroyed
and removed from orientation memory. During your first
performance, action memory handles the playing while orientation
memory of your mind controls its quality.
Neuroscientists make you believe that the concerto is stored in the brain
like a movie and performed frame by frame. However, action memory
does not store images. It stores structure that generates actions,
similarly to what the proliferon does:
The isolated CA oscillates between 46 states. Each state is an action
memory which “knows” how to generate the subsequent state. Now imagine that
the 46 states are a CA concerto. As the CA performs, it
does not remember the entire score. It plays only its present structure
which instructs it also how to generate the subsequent one.
This capability to generate the next tune from the present one is called
in psychology association. Take the following definition
provided by Answers.com: Association is a connection between different sensations,
feelings, or ideas by virtue of their previous occurrence together in experience.
As an exercise rephrase this definition in terms of action and orientation
memory and flavor it with Bergson’s duration.
This story illustrates how our organism simplifies and stores a complex
concerto. It seems to me that CA are a good starter for implementing simplification.
The first task might be to transform a data base of DNA sequences
into a set of associations.
Memory decay
The action memory of the newborn has the faculty to speak, known as language
instinct. What, and when the baby will speak depends on how his
orientation memory evolves. Memory is a process specified by the
doublet {input, output} Input is provided by the senses and other
processes. When input > output memory grows, and when output > input
it decays. If the piano player of the previous example stops playing his
memory will gradually vanish (he will forget). Memory requires resources.
Observe the proliferon Initially input
= 1 , output = 0 and the CA is isolated. The 46 states through which it
oscillates were viewed in the previous section as its music score. When
you raise the output, the CA will change its structure, forget its pervious
score and create a new one. On the hand when you lower the output it will
regain its original score.
Alzheimer’s disease hits
the orientation memory of the patient. Its output > input, and the patient
loses his orientation. However his condition may be improved by raising
input. Encourage the patient to move (sport), stimulate his senses with
music, flowers or images (TV). The proliferon experiment illustrates how
the lost memory (score) may be regained.
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