29 pivotal of 84 papers this map ranked · 71 links drawn here, all quote-verified · the full 287 are in the evidence
Attention evolved from a biological vision concept into a learnable neural mechanism, progressing from task-specific soft alignment in sequence models to a universal, efficient architectural primitive underlying modern deep learning.
▶extends · built on▶contests · pushed back▶narrows · specialised▶renames · same idea, new name▶migrates · jumped fieldsturning pointthe arrow points at the newer paper, and names what it did to the older one’s idea
Marked at both ends of the timeline: the oldest and the newest paper in this map that defines the term, 2012 and 2021. That is where this map's reading stops, not where the term's story does. Work outside those years may exist, and this map has not read it.
Take it to your draftevery thread, in order, with the quotes and the citationsMarkdownBibTeX
Drafted automatically from the papers’ own words. Nobody has edited this map by hand since. If anyone does, the change will be recorded, along with who made it. This map covers only the papers it read, all of them from arXiv. Reading more, from more places, would add threads, and each one would arrive with its own evidence.