Okay. This book and I didn't get along terribly well, but the experience was nevertheless a valuable one. So, 3 stars, even though I disagree fundamentally with some of the theory and the style of presentation. This will be a long one; bear with me.To put it simply.... Jeff Hawkins is a very intelligent computer engineer who thinks he understands brains in ways that no neuroscientist ever has before, mostly because he is willing to stand by a grand picture where most neuroscientists want to inve...

"On Intelligence (and Condescension)" The only thing wrong with Jeff Hawkins's book is Jeff Hawkins. His idea for the brain basic structure is exciting. (basically he argues that the brain works off a near-recursive prediction model based on stimulus and memory.) And he's really into intelligent machines. In fact, he may have convinced me not to fear the giant robot armies that have plagued my dreams. Nope. Now I can fear the infinitely-sized hyper-conscious EverMind that operates mainly in the

Hawkins' theory is that the entire sensory cortex runs a single cortical algorithm to perform all of its sensory functions.This single algorithm simply looks for patterns. Layers and layers of brain cells performing this pattern recognition result in our sensory experience. Here is an example of how this might work for vision:Layer 1 receives sensory input from the outside world and looks for general patterns of lines.Layer 2 receives input from layer 1 and looks for patterns of edges from those...

I picked this up on sale but I can't finish it. I wanted a bright person's coherent and logical progression through a model of the brain. As bright as the author might be, he is astonishingly tone deaf to how distracting the relentless implicit and direct accolades he gives to himself are to the science he is trying to explain. The book might be summarized as a tapestry of ....introduction (all about me!)...look at me again!...science...look at me!...look at me!....science...did you see me?! etc...

I liked this book: it contains a few nice thought experiments about intelligence. Bare in mind, however, that Jeff Hawkins' implementation of these ideas has not proven to be fruitful so far in his company Numenta.

Jeff Hawkins has done a remarkable thing. He's essentially synthesised all of the information we have on how the brain works into a simple, elegant and utterly comprehensible theory of intelligence that will pave the way to the creation of truly intelligent machines. That's a massive claim I know but I honestly don't think I have ever read a simpler, more straightforward account of what intelligence is. Hawkins' theory, in a nutshell, is that intelligence is a manifestation of the brains ability...

Moderately entertaining speculation on how intelligence works on a neural level in humans. A lot of his criticisms of neuroscience as practiced rung true to me (a more-than-layman less-than-initiate for this field) 10 years later, though I wouldn't be as extreme as he is. The framework he puts forth is at least plausible and has a certain elegance to it. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot of support provided, and a lot of the assertions he makes (particularly his high confidence in Mountcast...

The book is a take on understanding (human-like) intelligence. The author introduces memory prediction framework to explain the kind of intelligence humans possess. He defines intelligence as the ability to predict. This ability (prediction) can then take different shapes, like decision-making and even creativity. He view the brain as a pattern-recognition device. Different sensory inputs, he claims, are treated in (almost) the same way by the brain. The treatment of the subject was very pragmat...

4.23 starsAwesome read even if you aren't familiar at all with AI, neural networks, or anything tech related. This book takes a stab at trying to explain how we learn, and breaks down the steps that our brain goes through during the process of learning and recollection.It's a really good mix of easy to understand, higher level philosophical arguments as well as lots of technical details when he get's into the details about how the neocortex performs it's actions, from sensory input all the way t...

I read this book a little late – 15 years to be precise, which is a lifetime when it comes to a dynamic field like Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience. Therefore, while reading this book, I had to constantly try to go back to 2005 and understand the arguments based on what we knew and believed then. What makes this book remarkable is the author’s view that the only wany to understand intelligence is by studying the only example of it that we know of, our own brain. This may seem obvious to

Author is one of the top people in consumer tech (created Palm Pilot), and is deeply interested in AI. He does a pretty good job of presenting a few elements of the field (neural networks, primarily, and that prediction is the most key activity in the neocortex) to a general audience, and then includes some of his own theories and predictions (which is tricky because it's hard for a non-expert to know which parts are broadly accepted and which are his own theories...). Overall, a very interestin...

To be honest, I have very mixed feelings about this book. I really enjoyed the first part, it gave a good introduction and discussion of neuroscientific research. Even though I didn't agree on most points (being somewhat a neuroscientist myself), I think it was well written and ~interesting~. But, I am not quite sure how to feel about the whole second part: his theory. Hawkins surely has good points, but I'm missing some kind of evidence for his ideas. Overall, I was a bit disappointed by the la...

An amazing book with an amazing framework of how our brains work . It was a fantastic read . This book lays out the framework for understanding brain . I think this is the most important book in neuroscience , psycology and artificial intelligence for sure . This book is the must read for everybody who is curious about brain and how it works . Sections of creativity , intelligence , power of imagination , psycology are very thoughtful and charming . Jeff hawkins will definitely change the way yo...

Enjoyed thoroughly. Read it twice.

we humans are just a brain and a body. brain in this equation is the integral part, it gives us the identity and makes us what we are. you lose a limb, you just lose a limp; you lose a brain, you lose everything.it is as complicated an organ as important it is, but science still doesnot know how it works, we just know the basics of how neurons interact, how signals are passed and which area is doing what work. jeff hawkins, a neuroscientist, is trying to propose his theory of how, he thinks, bra...

Jeff Hawkins is most commonly known for inventing one of the first handheld computer devices, the palm pilot, and founding the Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience. Although he has expressed interest in artificial intelligence his whole life, he has also expressed a deep interest for Neuroscience as shown in his book On Intelligence. In this book he brings the ideas of artificial intelligence and neuroscience together to present his theory of how the brain processes information. Here are

Notes:1. Brain processes data from different senses (touch, smell, vision, etc.) similarly - it tells the patterns from the input. From an aesthetic perspective, this makes a lot of sense. I remember seeing in literature the examples of using one sense to describe another. And there's Kandinsky who paints music. 2. Memory. It mentions a lot of memories are not forgotten, but just stay somewhere. With triggers, we recall things that we haven't think of for a long time. It is fascinating that in t...

Mr Hawkins' dream was to encapsulate a basic theory of intelligence in a straightforward plainly written book. Written with science writer Sandra Blakeslee, "On Intelligence" combines Mr Hawkins' motivational autobiography, a scientific treatise on natural and artificial intelligence, and a philosophical discussion delivered in a no-nonsense, unembellished, yet stimulating narrative.At its core, "On Intelligence" postulates that all higher cognitive functions are built on a single relatively sim...

The book gets 5 stars for having been written in 2002 and only just now coming to the point at which the future has surpassed some minor aspects of what he's saying. I really liked the way he addresses the topic of intelligence and what it really means to think about it in a non-linear way. If your going down this track of thought, On Intelligence sticks out. P. 51 For example, a framework of mechanistic development of systems where the location is the difference vs. modularizing in a way that d...

original review:http://www.reemer.com/archives/2005/0...This is the second book that Phil Terry asked us to read as part of the Creative Good fellows program. It was writted by Jeff Hawkins, creator of the PalmPilot and Treo. Turns out Jeff's other passion is trying to understand how the brain works.This book lays out his theory of how the mind works in layman's terms. Hawkins premise is that the brain uses a "memory-prediction" framework to operate, and states that his model fills in a lot of h...

Interesting high-level theory of how the neocortex works, and a call to create "intelligent" machines that use the same algorithm/structure to perform pattern matching, hierarchical learning and prediction

I can't really say this was a practical book but it definitely gives a different perspective on how the brain works and how the current AI implementations are totally off the target. It's enlightening. Worth the read if you are a software developer for sure.

Key for understanding the different abstraction layers of how likely our brain and intelligence works. Key for understanding new developments in artificial neural networks too

This engaging, non(too)technical book offers a new and plausible theory of how the brain, or more specifically the neocortex, works.When I learned about the existence of this book, I was drawn to it for a number of reasons. For one thing, I'm intrigued by the faculty we call intelligence: what is it, exactly? For another, I, like the author Jeff Hawkins, have long been fascinated by the brain and how it works. And finally I was eager to read a book on neuroscience by a nonscientist, for Hawkins,...

The brain as a "pattern device" that works through memory"Prediction is not just one of the things your brain does. It is the primary function of the neocortex, and the foundation of intelligence." (p. 89)Perhaps the crux of Hawkins's insight into how our brains work and how that is different from how computers work can be gleaned from considering how to catch a ball in flight.It used to be thought that such tasks were solved by the brain through calculation. The brain would calculate the flight...

This was complex reading on a complex topic from a long time ago, so the details are hazy.Re-reading my highlights, I recall that some interesting hypotheses were how the brain is more like a very deep hierarchy of simple components repeated umpteenth times than some impossibly complex thing. A recursive design, such that the lower-level parts of the brain can perform the same computation, more or less, that gets transmitted to higher and higher levels of the brain which are actually identical-l...

Sadly, I found him to be arrogant. Normally I don't mind this, but it felt so indulgent it took away from the content.Even the narrator had a tough time regurgitating his words. I'm pretty sure he was encoding "h e l p ... m e" in the duration of his spacing of words. The good news is I treated it like a self help book as it drilled into my head 107 ways to stroke one's own ego. Example "I'm not an expert in theoretical Atmospheric Astrophysics" yeah, no shit Sherlock.He must have said "I'm not

What a book! I am blown away by the audacity and thoughtful ideas that he presents. As a cognitive neuroscience student, this was probably the most eye-opening book I’ve ever read about the brain. I won’t spoil it, but I can say that the main idea is that Hawkins tries to explain how the cortex creates invariant representations and how this relates to intelligence. Pros:- Well-written with impactful interesting ideas- Not too difficult to comprehend, but rich in details- Ambitious and engaging-

The tone of the book is of condescension as if this is the first book on intelligence. It is a book about brain functions, which many neuroscientists have studied. The portion that might be original is the comparison of intelligence to computing (with a lot of examples to make the content accessible). The author does a good job of explaining the difference between fast computing and artificial intelligence. A computer may be able to win at chess because it has all the possible moves stored in it...

Jeff's life passion has been uncovering how the brain works at a fundamental level. From my vantage point it seems he's getting closer than anybody else in the field. Mr. Hawkins does a great job in this book distilling as well as he can the knowledge he gathered in at least 3 centuries of studies. What makes him different than other researchers and theoreticians is that Jeff does it on his own terms. No college to provide nudges to his agenda or hospital patients to cloud his judgement with sub...