Prior to LLMs, there was never any suggestion that thoughts work like autocomplete, but now people are working backwards from that conclusion based on metaphorical parallels.
Predictive coding theory was formalized back around 2010 and traces it roots up to theories by Helmholtz from 1860.
Predictive coding theory postulates that our brains are just very strong prediction machines, with multiple layers of predictive machinery, each predicting the next.
Roots of predictive coding theory extend back to 1860s.
Natalia Bekhtereva was writing about compact concept representations in the brain akin to tokens.
Yes, you can draw interesting parallels between anything when you're motivated to do so. My point is that this isn't parsimonious reasoning, it's working backwards from a conclusion and searching for every opportunity to fit the available evidence into a narrative that supports it.
> Roots of predictive coding theory extend back to 1860s.
This is just another example of metaphorical parallels overstating meaningful connections. Just because next-token-prediction and predictive coding have the word "predict" in common doesn't mean the two are at all related in any practical sense.
Fascinating framing. What would you consider evidence here?