Parallel Thought

Current Model

1. All processors compete against each other
2. Attention Attenuator looks at the relative strengths of output from all processors, ignoring anything currently in WM.
3. AA picks the output of one processor (can be multiple events)
4. AA loads selected output into WM, slotting them in into order with what's already in WM

Alternative Model

1. All processors compete against what's currently in WM and against each other
2. Attention Attenuator picks anything that can fit into WM, given the relative strengths of what's already in WM. Probably does this in two steps:
   1. Pick all emitted events, and order them relative to each other.
   2. Apply them to WM relative to existing WM entries
3. Entries in WM get pushed out if they have lower strengths than new events, and WM is full.

CF still only picks top-most event.

Has the interesting effect of allowing parallel thought, with the top-most thought stream being fed back via CF, but everything else being 'background' thought.

Advantages:

• Disregarding biological plausibility, this seems like the kind of optimisations that are built into modern computer CPUs to speed up processing.

Disadvantages:

• I'm not sure how biologically plausible this is.

Consequences:

• 'HANDLED' tag no longer works. Because there's no single selection of which event has 'handled' another. See discussion in Memory,-Events-and-Percepts---A-discussion-on-Representation for details and drawbacks.

(Added 2019-10-27. Labels: work-in-progress)