An artificial neuron includes inputs and dendrites, a respective one of which is associated with a respective one of the inputs. A respective dendrite includes a respective power series of weights. The weights in a given power of the power series represent a maximal projection. A respective power also may include at least one switch, to identify holes in the projections. By providing maximal projections, linear scaling may be provided for the maximal projections, and quasi-linear scaling may be provided for the artificial neuron, while allowing a lossless compression of the associations. Accordingly, hetero-associative and/or auto-associative recall may be accommodated for large numbers of inputs, without requiring geometric scaling as a function of input.