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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