Numenta replicating the neocortex in programming
In IEEE Spectrum Jeff Hawkins, formerly of Palm, and now of Numenta, introduces everybody to his new programming platform. Trying to replicate the process of the human neocortex, Numenta developed Hierarchical Temporal Memory programming:
We’ve focused on the brain’s neocortex, and we have made significant progress in understanding how it works. We call our theory, for reasons that I will explain shortly, Hierarchical Temporal Memory, or HTM. We have created a software platform that allows anyone to build HTMs for experimentation and deployment. You don’t program an HTM as you would a computer; rather you configure it with software tools, then train it by exposing it to sensory data. HTMs thus learn in much the same way that children do. HTM is a rich theoretical framework that would be impossible to describe fully in a short article such as this, so I will give only a high level overview of the theory and technology.