ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Neural history compressor

Okay kiddo, let me tell you about something called a neural history compressor.

You see, our brains are really good at remembering things. We remember things we see, hear, smell, and touch. But sometimes, we don't need to remember everything we experience. Sometimes, we just want to remember the important things.

That's where the neural history compressor comes in. It helps our brains remember the important things, while getting rid of the not-so-important things.

Think of it like a big filing cabinet in your brain. When you see or experience something, it gets filed away in the cabinet. But instead of keeping every single piece of paper, the neural history compressor helps sort through all of the papers and only keeps the most important ones.

The way it works is by looking at patterns in the things we experience. It looks for things that happen a lot, or things that are similar. Then it compresses those patterns into one memory, instead of keeping lots of separate memories.

For example, let's say you see a lot of dogs in your life. The neural history compressor would notice this pattern and compress all those memories into one memory of "dogs." It doesn't need to remember every single dog you've seen, just that they are all dogs.

So basically, the neural history compressor helps our brains be more efficient with our memories. It helps us remember the important things, while getting rid of all the clutter. Pretty cool, huh?