A Brief History of Intelligence by Max Bennett

Author:Max Bennett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2023-08-22T00:00:00+00:00

Summary of Breakthrough #3: Simulating

The primary new brain structure that emerged in early mammals was the neocortex. With the neocortex came the gift of simulation—the third breakthrough in our evolutionary story. To summarize how this occurred and how it was used:

Sensory neocortex evolved, which created a simulation of the external world (a world model).

The agranular prefrontal cortex (aPFC) evolved, which was the first region of the frontal neocortex. The aPFC created a simulation of an animal’s own movements and internal states (a self model) and constructed “intent” to explain one’s own behavior.

The aPFC and sensory neocortex worked together to enable early mammals to pause and simulate aspects of the world that were not currently being experienced—in other words, model-based reinforcement learning.

The aPFC somehow solved the search problem by intelligently selecting paths to simulate and determining when to simulate them.

These simulations enabled early mammals to engage in vicarious trial and error—to simulate future actions and decide which path to take based on the imagined outcomes.

These simulations enabled early mammals to engage in counterfactual learning, thereby offering a more advanced solution to the credit assignment problem—enabling mammals to assign credit based on causal relationships.

These simulations enabled early mammals to engage in episodic memory, which allowed mammals to recall past events and actions, and use these recollections to adjust their behavior.

In later mammals, the motor cortex evolved, enabling mammals to plan and simulate specific body movements.

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