Question: What material substrate might implement continuous 3-D priors in brains?
My hypothesis: A brain uses a nanoscopic meta-material I dub simulatrix (Elastic Nanocomputation). Simulatrix would possess a few specific properties:
Be a mesh-like matrix between, inside, and interpenetrating neurons, possibly containing resonant elements.
Conducts soliton-like pseudo-elastic waves through 3-space with relatively low loss at variable velocity. (Thanks to Tom Weaver of Livermore, who pointed out that only a true meta-material could conduct waves at velocities slow enough to implement the needed computations; pressure waves in water move far too quickly).
Interact electro-chemically with neurons, so that synaptic release initiates spherical waves (like blast-waves), and high-amplitude waves trigger neural spikes.
Test:
- Discover experimentally a sub-neural substrate with those properties
- Show that neurons within a cortical layer, e.g. visual layer IV, have 3-D travelling-wave correlations in their spiking patterns.
