[skissane]

> Backprop can lead to 'catastrophic interference' where learning new things abalates old associations, which doesn't match observed biological processes.

Most people find that if you move away from a topic and into a new one your knowledge of it starts to decay over time. 20+ years ago I had a job as a Perl and VB6 developer, I think most of my knowledge of those languages has been evacuated to make way for all the other technologies I've learned since (and 20 years of life experiences). Isn't that an example of "learning new things ablates old associations"?

[TheOtherHobbes]

Is it replaced, or does it decay without reinforcement?

[skissane]

How can we distinguish those two possibilities?

Stuff like childhood memories seems very deeply ingrained even if rarely or never reinforced. I can still remember the phone number of our house we moved out of in 1991, when I was 8 or 9. If I’m still alive in 30/40/50 years time, I expect I’ll still remember it then.