Bacteria to Artificial Super Intelligence
The last universal common ancestor, which biologists affectionately nicknamed LUCA, wasn't so different from fairly complex bacteria alive today and it lived in an ecosystem teeming with other species of life and viruses.It is thought to have an early immune system, showing that even by 4.2 billion years ago, our ancestor was engaging in an arms race with viruses. All cognition whether organic or synthetic started from the same source. It wasn't the first or only early life form but it is the only one that survived to set the basic template of all life that exists today, if you consider viruses as non-living.
Animals differ in cognition/intelligence, and humans are usually considered to be by far the most intelligent. However, it is unclear which brain properties might explain these differences. Furthermore, the question of whether properties such as a theory of mind, imitation or a syntactical language are uniquely found in humans is hotly debated. Finally, recent reports on high intelligence in animals with relatively small brains, such as corvid birds and dogs, has raised the discussion about the relationship between brain and intelligence.
Stage 1
Even the most basic lifeform must have some basic ingredients to find food and react to stimuli. All though neural systems were a later development, there were methods of recognising the survival basics such as reacting to food, threats and often light. This required a basic system of transmission of information to effectors such as defensive actions or absorption methods of sustenance capture. Also required was a basic form of molecular memory to advise the creature how to handle these stimuli. Although a very basic sequence of detect, react was activated, it set the ground work for a more sophisticated chain of episodes.
Stage 2
The emergence of the bilaterian animal pushed the creation of basic neurons- thought to have been modified from epithelial cells that already had basic sensory aptitude for recognising differences in touch and temperature changes. Bacteria already had the ability to move and change direction from cilia set on the outside of the body. Moving and re-directing a multicellular animal was more complex and needed a new set of instructions. C.Elegans is a much used example of early bilaterians that still exists today. It has been used by AI researchers to understand why an animal with only 302 neurons has relatively complex movements. Further research showed that its overall game plan is quite simple. It move only forward but changes direction by turning its body either right or left. When sensing food it moves in an arc towards it and the opposite direction from threats.
Stage 3
Vertebrates may have acquired a basic program for building the brain on the genome at the early stage of divergence, in which the flexibility to create subsequent diversity and innovation was already pre-installed. The brains of vertebrates acquired their basic forms such as the forebrain (telencephalon and diencephalon), midbrain, and hindbrain in the early stage of evolution, and have changed the morphology and function of each region while maintaining the basics structure during evolution.
The depth of nuance increases as the brain becomes more sophisticated, this allows more choices and actions.
Stage 4
Neurons communicate with each other via electrical impulses, which are produced by ion channels that control the flow of ions such as potassium and sodium. In a surprising new finding, MIT neuroscientists have shown that human neurons have a much smaller number of these channels than expected, compared to the neurons of other mammals. This reduction in channel density may have helped the human brain evolve to operate more efficiently, allowing it to divert resources to other energy-intensive processes that are required to perform complex cognitive tasks.
The maturation of cortical neurons is particularly slow, taking months to years to develop adult functions. Learning is a very important part of humans ability to be superior to other animals in depth and planning futures. It has been found that other mammals have a learning period of between weeks to two years, while humans can learn for most of their lives.
The Neocortex
Frontal Lobe
The frontal lobes are responsible for the selection and coordination of goal-directed behavior. In this region of the neocortex is the human executive function that manages the intricacies of multiple complex processes such as task switching, reinforcement learning, and decision-making to name a few. Disorders of the frontal lobe include frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Parietal Lobe
Traditionally thought as the association cortex, the parietal lobe is believed to play a role in decision-making, numerical cognition, processing of sensory information, and spatial awareness.
Occipital Lobe
The occipital lobe is responsible for visual function and is the bulge seen at the back of the brain. It hosts the primary area for visual perception which is closely surrounded by the visual association area.
Temporal Lobe
The temporal lobe houses the hippocampus and the amygdala. Among its functions are to process sensory information and derive language, emotions, and meaningful memories.Additionally, it is responsible for declarative memory, which is memory that can be spoken aloud (such as learned facts), and is further divided into two subgroups— semantic and episodic memory.
The Octopus
Each arm of an octopus is able to control itself semi-independently from the central brain. An octopus has about 500 million neurons in its body, two-thirds of which are distributed amongst its limbs. This means that there are about 40 million neurons in each tentacle. The octopus does, in fact, have a central brain located between its eyes containing about 180 million neurons.
This is the part of the nervous system that determines what the octopus wants or needs, such as if it needs to search for food. These are sent as messages through groupings of neurons. Commands like “search for food” are then received by each of the tentacles, who all have their own smaller, independent brains. With these commands in mind, each tentacle gathers its own sensory and position data, processes it, and then issues its own commands on how to move by stiffening or relaxing different parts of the arm, all without consulting the central brain upstairs. As the tentacle moves, it keeps collecting and processing sensory information, and any relevant information, such as the location of food, gets sent back to the central brain to make larger decisions.
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