Philosophy Wire: Forgetting. To remember…

The brain is the ultimate computing machine, so it's no wonder researchers are keen to try and emulate it. Now, new research has taken an intriguing step in that direction - a device that's able to 'forget' memories, just like our brains do. It's called a second-order memristor (a mix of "memory" and "resistor"). The clever design mimics a human brain synapse in the way it remembers information, then gradually loses that information if it's not accessed for an extended period of time. While the memristor doesn't have much practical use just now, it could eventually help scientists develop a new kind of neurocomputer – the foundation of artificial intelligence systems – that fulfils some of the same functions a brain does. [1] We had the ability to create robots which remember everything. And yet we will make them faulty. Just like us. Because we like our faults. Because we unconsciously know that they are not faults. Music is not made up of notes. But out of silence. Life is not made up of life. But out of death. What we know is not what we know. But all those things we choose to forget…

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