How do artificially intelligent computers recognize cats on the Internet? Apparently using the same mathematical techniques used in physics for calculating the large-scale behavior of physical systems such as elementary particles, fluids and the cosmos. In other words, cats on the Internet have a place in the universe that can be scientifically proven.

Geoffrey Hinton, a British computer scientist at the University of Toronto, and other researchers had devised a procedure to run on multilayered webs of virtual neurons that transmit signals to their neighbors by “firing” on and off. Not surprisingly, this neuron firing is similar to what happens when a person looks at a cat walking across a lawn. The visual cortex appears to process the scene hierarchically, with neurons in each successive layer firing in response to larger-scale, more pronounced features.

If you thought computers can’t learn from cats, you’re wrong. Computers may use cats to study how the mind processes information, which means cats could be worthy of further scientific study.

To read more about how computers can recognize cats, click here.

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