My current understanding of recognition (I think it was pulled from a Kurzweil book I read recently, so grain of salt etc) is that humans have on average 150k r

My current understanding of recognition (I think it was pulled from a Kurzweil book I read recently, so grain of salt etc) is that humans have on average 150k recognizer circuits[1], which are long columns that permeate a few layers of our brain. Signals come in from various sensory inputs, and it lights up some subset of recognizer circuits, and that data is then passed on to other parts of the brain to analyze the context. Every letter of the alphabet, and every word you use regularly, and every object you see, has a handful of associated recognizer circuits which will trigger given the shape, smell, or the sound, etc. When one of these circuits goes unused for a while, it can be repurposed. Personally, it kind of blows me away that we can function as well as we do while only being able to immediately recognize 150 thousand total concepts. It's such an easily comprehensible number, yet completely defines our perception of reality. If Mary had never seen the color red, so no matter how hard she studies, her brain will not have the circuit capable of recognizing the color red, simply because that particular signal has never entered her brain. She might be able to acquire it later though. Colorblind people get the protein injection that allows them to see the third color, my understanding is that it takes a few months[2] for it to take effect, which lines up well with my understanding that it would need to rewire a bunch of recognizer circuits through repeated exposures. [1] https://numenta.com/neuroscience-research/cortical-columns/ https://numenta.com/neuroscience-research/cortical-columns/ [2] https://www.npr.org/2009/09/17/112897277/thanks-to-gene-therapy-monkeys-see-in-full-color https://www.npr.org/2009/09/17/112897277/thanks-to-gene-ther...