Voting in the Thousand Brains Theory (Part Two) - August 30, 2021

In the continuation of last week’s research meeting, Subutai Ahmad explains voting in the Thousand Brains Theory. In this research meeting, he explains how inference is much faster with multiple columns as columns share information through long-range sparse connections to agree on what the object is. He goes over the simulation results we presented in our “Columns” paper, and shows that as the number of cortical columns increases in the network, the number of touches to recognize an object rapidly decreases, making inference much quicker. Finally, he talks about how the Thousand Brains Theory rethinks the notion of hierarchy in the neocortex. Instead of the classic view of using hierarchy to assemble features into a recognized object, the theory states that the neocortex uses hierarchy to vote across levels and sensory modalities, and rapidly reach consensus on the objects being sensed. Columns paper “A Theory of How Columns in the Neocortex Enable Learning the Structure of the World“: