Jeff Hawkins provided a rather interesting argument on the topic:
The scaling of the human brain has happened too fast to implement any deep changes in how the circuitry works. The entire scaling process was mostly done by the favorite trick of biological evolution: copy and paste existing units (in this case—cortical columns).
Jeff argues that there is no change in the basic algorithm between earlier primates and humans. It’s the same reference-frames processing algo distributed across columns. The main difference is, humans have much more columns.
I’ve found his arguments convincing for two reasons:
his neurobiological arguments are surprisingly good (to the point of being surprisingly obvious in hindsight)
It’s the same “just add more layers” trick we reinvented in ML
The failure of large dinosaurs to quickly scale is a measuring instrument that detects how their algorithms scaled with more compute
Are we sure about the low intelligence of dinosaurs?
Judging by the living dinos (e.g. crows), they are able to pack a chimp-like intelligence into a 0.016 kg brain.
And some of the dinos have had x60 more of it (e.g. the brain of Tyrannosaurus rex weighted about1 kg, which is comparable to Homo erectus).
And some of the dinos have had a surprisingly large encephalization quotient, combined with bipedalism, gripping hands, forward-facing eyes, omnivorism, nest building, parental care, and living in groups (e.g. troodontids).
Maybe it was not an asteroid after all...
(Very unlikely, of course. But I find the idea rather amusing)
Jeff Hawkins provided a rather interesting argument on the topic:
The scaling of the human brain has happened too fast to implement any deep changes in how the circuitry works. The entire scaling process was mostly done by the favorite trick of biological evolution: copy and paste existing units (in this case—cortical columns).
Jeff argues that there is no change in the basic algorithm between earlier primates and humans. It’s the same reference-frames processing algo distributed across columns. The main difference is, humans have much more columns.
I’ve found his arguments convincing for two reasons:
his neurobiological arguments are surprisingly good (to the point of being surprisingly obvious in hindsight)
It’s the same “just add more layers” trick we reinvented in ML
Are we sure about the low intelligence of dinosaurs?
Judging by the living dinos (e.g. crows), they are able to pack a chimp-like intelligence into a 0.016 kg brain.
And some of the dinos have had x60 more of it (e.g. the brain of Tyrannosaurus rex weighted about 1 kg, which is comparable to Homo erectus).
And some of the dinos have had a surprisingly large encephalization quotient, combined with bipedalism, gripping hands, forward-facing eyes, omnivorism, nest building, parental care, and living in groups (e.g. troodontids).
Maybe it was not an asteroid after all...
(Very unlikely, of course. But I find the idea rather amusing)