A thousand brains A new theory of intelligence

Jeff Hawkins, 1957-

Book - 2021

"For all we hear of neuroscience's great advances, the field has generated more questions than answers. We know that the brain combines sensory input from all over your body into a single perception, but not how. We think brains "compute" in some sense, but we can't say what those computations are. We believe that the brain is organized as a hierarchy, with different pieces all working collaboratively to make a single model of the world. But we can explain neither how those pieces are differentiated, nor how they collaborate. Neuroscientist and computer engineer Jeff Hawkins argues that it's so hard to answer questions about the brain because our basic picture of how the brain works is wrong. In A Thousand Brai...ns, Hawkins takes a radically new approach to the brain, with stunning implications. Hawkins' proposal, called the Thousand Brains Theory of Intelligence, is that your brain is organized into thousands upon thousands of individually computing units, called cortical columns. These columns all process information from the outside world in the same way, and each builds a complete model of the world. But because every column has different connections to the rest of the body, each has a unique frame of reference. Your brain sorts out all those models by conducting a vote. The fundamental job of the brain, therefore, is not to build a single thought, but to manage the thousands of individual thoughts it has every moment. With this powerful new framework, Hawkins is able to reassess some of neuroscience's most stubborn problems, like why pain needs to be painful to be useful, how we can understand that our perspective of a thing changes as we move around it, and why we might be conscious but individual pieces of our body aren't. And once you understand how the brain works, it is a lot easier to make one yourself. Hawkins is, above all, an engineer, and A Thousand Brains outlines how a new understanding of intelligence could lead to truly intelligent AI. Hawkins explores how we might create machines that can learn on their own, why we need not fear superintelligent systems, and how human and machine intelligence may someday merge. Combining cutting-edge theoretical neuroscience with an ambitious program for tomorrow's digital minds, A Thousand Brains heralds a revolution in the study of intelligence. It is a big-think book, in every sense of the word"--

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Subjects
Published
New York : Basic Books 2021.
Language
English
Main Author
Jeff Hawkins, 1957- (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
xiii, 272 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781541675810
  • A new understanding the brain. Older brain, new brain ; Vernon Mountcastle's big idea ; A model of the world in your head ; The brain reveals its secrets ; Maps in the brain ; Concepts, language, and high-level thinking ; The thousand brains theory of intelligence
  • Machine intelligence. Why there is no "I" in AI ; When machines are conscious ; The future of machine intelligence ; The existential risks of machine intelligence
  • Human intelligence. False beliefs ; The existential risks of human intelligence ; Merging brains and machines ; Estate planning for humanity ; Genes versus knowledge
  • Final thoughts.
Review by Choice Review

What is intelligence, and how do brains create it? This book, primarily targeted to nonspecialists, posits a large-scale theory that the brain's model of the world is built using map-like reference frames. All knowledge is stored in these reference frames, which are associated with about 150,000 cortical columns in the neocortex--the "thousand brains" of the title. The first (and most scientific) section of the book explains this theoretical work in more detail and includes a handful of annotated suggested readings for those interested in the research behind the theory. The second section delves into artificial/machine intelligence. Hawkins, a founding inventor of the field of handheld computing (co-inventor of the Palm Pilot), more recently co-founded a neuroscience company (Numenta) with the goal of applying brain research discoveries to machine learning and intelligence. The final, and perhaps most controversial, section expresses the author's opinions on "false beliefs," with discussion of how human intelligence is both the source of human success and an existential threat. Other reader and professional reviews affirm that this book is polarizing--it is certainly thought-provoking and worth considering, challenging readers to make up their own minds. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. --Carrie Leigh Iwema, University of Pittsburgh

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Hawkins (On Intelligence), inventor of the PalmPilot, explicates his theories of how the brain works in this revelatory survey of human intelligence. He begins with the cell, explaining that individual cells work together in the brain to create intelligence (which, Hawkins writes, spans from "basic sensory functions to the highest forms of intellectual ability") before moving on to a consideration of how the brain's neocortex works. Hawkins's central idea, the thousand brains theory, is that "the entire world is learned: as a complex hierarchy of objects located relative to other objects." Extending beyond human intellect, Hawkins discusses artificial intelligence, which he writes falls short of human intelligence because of the narrow limits constraining the operations of even the smartest machines. In his most daring section, he argues that serious consideration should be given to using intelligent machines to preserve human knowledge, which would enable information to persist and be distributed throughout the galaxy, long after the death of the last human. The complex concepts are presented as simply as possible, but they aren't dumbed down and demand focus. Readers who persist will find Hawkins's study is full of thought-provoking arguments. (Mar.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review

How a collection of identical cells takes in information and generates intelligence. Entrepreneur and computer engineer Hawkins' enthusiasm comes through in TED talks and an earlier bestseller (On Intelligence, 2004), and neuroscientists take him seriously--though readers new to the subject may have a more difficult time digesting the complex information. The author focuses on the neocortex. Only mammals have one, but all animals possess a deeper "reptilian" brain designed to ensure survival and reproduction. The neocortex allows humans to "devote our lives to philosophy, mathematics, poetry, astrophysics, music, geology, or the warmth of human love, in defiance of the old brain's genetic urging" that we should be spending time "fighting rivals and pursuing multiple sexual partners." Hawkins adds that all thoughts and actions result from activity and the connections among neurons. Every element of intelligence--seeing, touching, language, thought--is fundamentally the same. The author's intriguing thousand brains theory maintains that identical structures called "reference frames" occur throughout the neocortex. All take in sensory information "to model everything we know, not just physical objects," and "all knowledge is stored at locations relative to reference frames." Nothing enters our skull but electrical spikes, so this model is a simulation. It's usually accurate, but humans perceive lots of nonsense and false beliefs, which have become threats to our long-term survival. Modern life remains a battle between the neocortex (knowledge) and the old brain (competition, survival). Usefully, Hawkins then applies his theory to machine intelligence. Computers store knowledge but lack reference frames and the ability to model: "Nothing we call AI today is intelligent." Humans are intelligent because we can learn to do practically anything. Computers do one thing, although they do it far better than humans. There is no "deep learning," only access to immense amounts of data, and future intelligent machines will be more like humans, and "success…could be a machine that has the abilities of a five-year-old child." Richard Dawkins provides the foreword. Insightful stuff for readers immersed in the labyrinthine world of neuroscience. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.