Working memory is important. How can we increase it?
Writing is like an external brain… if you go back and read it. Dual-N-Back works… maybe. Working memory is important enough for me to incessantly ask about improving it.
What about chunking? The one where you remember ideas better by grouping them into a new bigger idea.
Chunking basically works as an abstraction layer applied to an idea itself. Instead of “lots of (insert sigmoid function)s connected using these thingies”, you go “a few layers of sigmoid-activated neurons”, or even just “this neural network”.
So here are my questions for discussion:
What are the human capacities for chunking ideas?
Can we abstract thoughts endlessly endlessly-for-current-practical-purposes, to get around our working memory limits?
How often people need to be able to switch between abstraction levels, ways this cognitive work can (or reasons it can’t) be chunked/written/automated/offloaded. (E.g., in the
(This post doesn’t have the answers; I just want to get the ball rolling on people thinking thoroughly about this.)
The Power (and limits?) of Chunking
Working memory is important. How can we increase it?
Writing is like an external brain… if you go back and read it. Dual-N-Back works… maybe. Working memory is important enough for me to incessantly ask about improving it.
What about chunking? The one where you remember ideas better by grouping them into a new bigger idea.
Chunking basically works as an abstraction layer applied to an idea itself. Instead of “lots of (insert sigmoid function)s connected using these thingies”, you go “a few layers of sigmoid-activated neurons”, or even just “this neural network”.
So here are my questions for discussion:
What are the human capacities for chunking ideas?
Can we abstract thoughts
endlesslyendlessly-for-current-practical-purposes, to get around our working memory limits?Does that work for the kinds of super-valuable maths research that could be needed to solve AI alignment? Why or why not? How much of this is “giant galaxy-brained unwriteable uncodifiable concepts that you must hold 100% of in your head all the time and cannot be taught to anyone else” VS “an average-IQ person, given 20 years to just write stuff down and reference it, could get it”.
How often people need to be able to switch between abstraction levels, ways this cognitive work can (or reasons it can’t) be chunked/written/automated/offloaded. (E.g., in the
(This post doesn’t have the answers; I just want to get the ball rolling on people thinking thoroughly about this.)