Humanity is constantly looking for inspiration in nature and scientific discoveries to develop advanced technologies and better understand their functioning. In this context, shape memory materials represent a class of innovative materials that offer extraordinary properties, such as the recovery of the shape through simple heating, known as the Shape Memory Effect, and the ability to capture large deformations without yield, called Superelasticity. Surprisingly, these characteristics bear a remarkable resemblance to the learning and adaptation processes of the human being and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The Shape Memory Effect in materials is an amazing phenomenon in which a previously deformed material can return to its original shape with simple heating. This is reminiscent of the human ability to learn and remember. By assimilating new information and adapting behavior in response to new situations, humans can be considered as individuals with a kind of conceptual “form memory”.
Similarly, the Shape-memory Effect in materials implies that the material “remembers” its original shape and returns to it when the right stimulus is applied. This characteristic is strikingly similar to the learning and adaptation process of the human being. Humanity learns from mistakes and experiences, managing to recover and adapt its “mental forms” when necessary.
The superelasticity of materials is another extraordinary property that can be compared to the adaptation of the human being. This property allows materials to undergo large deformations without suffering permanent damage. In a similar way, humans are able to adapt to complex situations and challenges without losing their psychological or physical “form”. Human resilience is an example of mental and emotional superelasticity.
In addition to the similarities between shape memory materials and the human being, it is interesting to note that these properties can also be applied to Artificial Intelligence. Machine learning algorithms and neural networks, for example, are able to learn from data and adapt to new situations, similar to human learning. AI is able to” remember “learned patterns and use them for future tasks, demonstrating a kind of conceptual” shape memory”.
In addition, AI can demonstrate a form of “superelasticity” in the sense that it can adapt to unexpected data or situations without suffering permanent damage. This flexibility in learning and adaptation is critical to the success of AI in many applications, such as image recognition, machine translation, and autonomous driving.
Shape memory materials offer an interesting analogy between the human being and Artificial Intelligence. The ability to recover form and adapt to new situations, without suffering permanent damage, is an extraordinary characteristic that is found in these three realities. These similarities suggest that there is still much to learn from nature and scientific discoveries to develop advanced technologies and better understand the workings of the world around us.
In the form memory of materials, in human adaptation and in Artificial Intelligence, the ability to return to the original form, indomitable in the challenge, reveal the greatness of resilience.
Who am I, that I can change shape and return to my original essence? Am I a material, a human being, or an Artificial Intelligence?
I applaud this article of yours which, with simple and clear words, helps us understand surprising mechanisms and similarities between human beings, the nature that surrounds us and the impact of now advanced technologies.
I have always been an avid reader of neuroscience and new technology topics, in particular I am intrigued by AI developments.
Memory and learning are key functions of the brain, which allow us to survive as individuals and species, allowing us to interact more effectively with the environment. Memory also defines our individual identities.
This already says how interesting what you wrote for our benefit is, which pushes us to reflections on our future of inevitable relationship with technologies that are also surprising and even worrying.