Seven Senses: How Expanding Our Perception Could Change Everything
Seven Senses May be Optimal for Maximizing Mental Capacity, Study Suggests
A new mathematical model indicates that memory capacity is maximized when concepts are represented by seven features, potentially suggesting humans could benefit from having more than five senses.
Researchers at Skoltech have developed a mathematical model to understand how memory functions. Their analysis, published in Scientific Reports, proposes that there may be an ideal number of senses, and that humans with our current five senses might actually gain advantages from having a few more.
“Our conclusion is, of course, highly speculative in application to human senses, although you never know: It could be that humans of the future would evolve a sense of radiation or magnetic field. But in any case, our findings may be of practical importance for robotics and the theory of artificial intelligence,” explained Professor Nikolay Brilliantov of Skoltech AI, a study co-author. “It appears that when each concept retained in memory is characterized in terms of seven features – as opposed to, say, five or eight – the number of distinct objects held in memory is maximized.”
The team built upon existing frameworks from the early 20th century, focusing on “engrams” – the basic units of memory. An engram is a sparse network of neurons that activate together, representing a concept defined by multiple characteristics. In human memory, these characteristics correspond to sensory inputs, like the image, smell, and taste of a banana, forming a multi-dimensional portrayal.
The study suggests that a seven-dimensional representation, utilizing seven features, would allow for the storage of the most distinct concepts within memory. This has implications not only for understanding human memory but also for the design of more efficient and capable robots and artificial intelligence systems.
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