Whether “working memory” is memory at all, or whether it is a process of attentional control as applied to normal long-term memory… we don’t know for sure. So in that sense, you are totally right.
But what is the exact nature of the process is, perhaps strangely, unimportant. The question is whether the process can be enhanced, and I would say that the answer is very likely to be yes.
Also, keep in mind that working memory enhancement scenario is just one I pulled from thin air as an example. The larger point is that we are rapidly gaining the ability to non-invasively monitor activities of single neuronal cells (with fluorescent markers, for instance), and we are, more importantly, gaining the ability to control them (with finely tuned and targeted optogenetics). Thus, reading and writing into the brain is no longer an impossible hurdle, requiring nanoimplants or teeny-tiny electrodes (with requisite wiring). All you need are optical fibers and existing optogenetic tools (in theory, at least).
To generalize the point even further: we have the tools and the know-how with which we could start manipulating and enhancing existing neural networks (including those in human brains). It would be bad, inefficient and with a great deal of side-effects, we don’t really understand the underlying architecture enough to really know what we are doing—but could still theoretically begin today, if for some reason we decided to (and lost our ethics along the way). On the other hand, we don’t have a clue how to build an AGI. Regardless of any ethical or eschatonic concerns, we simply couldn’t do it even if we wanted to. My personal estimate is, therefore, that we will make it to the first goal far sooner than we make it to the second one.
Whether “working memory” is memory at all, or whether it is a process of attentional control as applied to normal long-term memory… we don’t know for sure. So in that sense, you are totally right.
But what is the exact nature of the process is, perhaps strangely, unimportant. The question is whether the process can be enhanced, and I would say that the answer is very likely to be yes.
Also, keep in mind that working memory enhancement scenario is just one I pulled from thin air as an example. The larger point is that we are rapidly gaining the ability to non-invasively monitor activities of single neuronal cells (with fluorescent markers, for instance), and we are, more importantly, gaining the ability to control them (with finely tuned and targeted optogenetics). Thus, reading and writing into the brain is no longer an impossible hurdle, requiring nanoimplants or teeny-tiny electrodes (with requisite wiring). All you need are optical fibers and existing optogenetic tools (in theory, at least).
To generalize the point even further: we have the tools and the know-how with which we could start manipulating and enhancing existing neural networks (including those in human brains). It would be bad, inefficient and with a great deal of side-effects, we don’t really understand the underlying architecture enough to really know what we are doing—but could still theoretically begin today, if for some reason we decided to (and lost our ethics along the way). On the other hand, we don’t have a clue how to build an AGI. Regardless of any ethical or eschatonic concerns, we simply couldn’t do it even if we wanted to. My personal estimate is, therefore, that we will make it to the first goal far sooner than we make it to the second one.