vertebrate memory differs from computer memory. Auto-association suggests that vertebrate brains use content-addressable memory—memories are recalled by providing subsets of the original experience, which reactivate the original pattern. If I tell you the beginning of a story you’ve heard before, you can recall the rest; if I show you half a picture of your car, you can draw the rest. However, computers use register-addressable memory—memories that can be recalled only if you have the unique memory address for them. If you lose the address, you lose the memory.
