I am sympathetic to your view, but may I offer you a different viewpoint, at my own expense? Truly original ideas are fragile and delicate. They require caref

I am sympathetic to your view, but may I offer you a different viewpoint, at my own expense? Truly original ideas are fragile and delicate. They require careful nurturing and devoted protection if they are to eventually flower. It may be that Hofstadter sees far more deeply than I, and approaches like NuPIC and deep belief networks that seem different to me and therefore in need of synthesis are to him transparently isomorphic and dead ends. The effort it would take him to make me understand why this is so would cost him precious time and progress on his true path.