On Intelligence

Just checking in.  I havent had my nose in the news much lately, but I have been indulging in a great book, On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins.  Hawkins invented the PalmPilot and other hand held devices, he also wrote some of the first successful handwriting recognition software.

On Intelligence is an easy read, not too technical, but not dumbed down either.  There are some great ideas discussed in the book regarding the mechanics of how we think, and actual steps that occur in our brains.  Hawkins describes his struggle getting support to research neuroscience, and his frustration with the arrogance of AI researchers who think that the brain is primitive, and computer brains should be evolved without considering our brains design.

I've considered the same debate, and after reading this book I'm firmly in the camp of Hawkins.  We still know too little about how our brain works.

The other aspect of the book I was immediately intrigued by was the concept of feedback, and how much of it our brains are designed to provide.  The flow of information in our neocortex is actually greater in the direction opposite of the input.  Our brains are instruments of prediction.  It is always predicting.  As the movie of our life rolls by, our brain tries to predict every frame.  When a prediction is wrong, we react.

Hawkins has a great view of this landscape if you ask me.  Its already gotten me thinking about some new neural net ideas.