» On Intelligence

On Intelligence Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: A chimerical project based on an extremely interesting interpretation of brain functioning
Comment: During the past half-millennium the history of anatomy documents the peculiar custom of using the most advanced technology of each era as the definite model of the human brain. The first match was with clockworks during the sixteenth century; then with the steam engine, in the nineteenth century; one hundred years later with telephone switchboards in the first half of the twentieth century, and in the recent decades, naturally and expectedly, with electronic computers. However sound they might have appeared at each time, all these comparisons proved inadequate after a while. All have fallen short when matching up manmade machines with the extraordinary prodigy of the human organ that designed them.
Twenty years ago Jeff Hawkins, the architect of many technologies and a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur, decided to turn the metaphor all the way around and walk it in the opposite direction. Instead of starting from already invented equipment to develop explanatory models, Hawkins decided to first understand the way the brain operates--more specifically, how the cerebral cortex works--and design from there on a new technology. With such a challenge in mind, after studying neurology on his own and co-working with many scientists, the ambitious businessman initiates a monumental (if not chimerical) project to design and build electronic equipment that is to operate similarly to the human brain. Numenta, a company founded by Hawkins in 2005, has the mission to make this initiative a reality. His book ON INTELLIGENCE, written with science journalist Sandra Blakeslee, describes the reasoning behind his adventure, the factors that support the idea, the obstacles that make it extremely complex and the scientific developments that will contribute to its realization.
There is only one chapter in the book complex and difficult to read (the author warns about this) that presents his view of a detailed model of the functioning of the cerebral cortex, the thin layer of thirty billion neurons that surrounds the brain. Even with this exception, ON INTELLIGENCE is an entertaining and educational book. The description of the four attributes of the cerebral cortex that make it radically different from electronic computers is fascinating. The first attribute is the storage of sequences of patterns (instead of isolated data interrelated by data models and database software) that enables the recording and recalling of stories or sequences. The second is the ability to pick the full story or sequence from only a fraction of any part of whole without the need to access the complete pattern (we recognize a song by just listening a bit of it). The third is the conservation of the essence of every pattern although the rest of the information might be variable (this is why we recognize incomplete objects or identify people we have not seen in years despite changes of age, contexture or makeup). The fourth, the difficult-to read chapter of the book, is the storage of the patterns in a hierarchical structure.
These attributes provide the cerebral cortex an intellectual capacity quite different from those put forward in previous interpretations. According to Hawkins the cortex is an organ of prediction; predicting is the main function of the human brain and this capability is the very foundation of intelligence. The neurons involved in any activity (or some associated neurons yet to be discovered) are activated prior to the arrival of the corresponding sensory signals, be they visual, auditory or tactile, anticipating the coming events from some sort of extrapolation of all the patterns that the cortex has already in its memory. For example, when someone enters a restaurant where he never has been, he can "predict" with a good degree of certainty in what direction are the bathrooms. When the event is completed, if the result matches expectations (this happens most of the time), the owner of the brain does not even realize that a verification transaction was performed. If, on the contrary, expectations do not coincide with reality, there is a surprising reaction, followed by corrections and learning lessons that eventually lead to the creation of new patterns.
In Hawkins's perspective, the human brain is an organ that builds models based on patterns and analogies and generates with them creative predictions. When it does not find correlations, the brain invents them anyway with minimum consideration on how preposterous they may turn out. Pseudoscience, prejudices, intolerance and religions are the result of these inventions.
The concept of prediction that Hawkins developed in 1986--we should remember that he did not graduate in neurology--was later confirmed in independent scientific studies. For example, Rodolfo Llinás, a neuroscientist at the New York University School of Medicine establishes in 2001: "The capacity to predict the outcome of future events--critical to successful movement--is, most likely, the ultimate and most common of all global brain functions."
I believe the development of truly intelligent machines is an unfeasible project. Its endeavor, nevertheless, will lead to many new scientific discoveries. The brilliant entrepreneur recognizes that his target is neither the invention of an electronic model of human consciousness nor the production of machines that arrogantly say "I." His main interests aim at the development of computers with vision, the design of thinking robots and the construction of machines with capacity to learn. The invitation to the greed of the young generations to join in some way the great idea is outside the context and beauty of the whole project. Contributing to human growth or making a difference--not plain utilitarianism--should be the driving forces of scientific research. Still, from my perspective of cognitive science enthusiast, I consider that the very description of the functioning cerebral cortex (I suppose that a few neuroscientists may disagree with it) and the concept of prediction as the fundament of human Intelligence far deserve the reading of this excellent book.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Bigger, Faster, Stronger
Comment: All of human intelligence exists in a 2ml. six sheet layered region of the brain called the neo-cortex as large as a dinner napkin when laid out side to side. This region processes information regardless of sensory form, and is present in all mammals to varying sizes; most of us are lucky to have the largest among all mammals. All incoming sensory information from sight, smell, touch, sound etc. is processed using the same algorithm. Contrary to what most scientists believe, there are no modules specializing in specific tasks such as language. Any part of the neo-cortex is equipped and flexible enough to manage any task, and all parts of this region of the brain process information based on pattern/time recognition. Mr. Hawkins believes throughout the learning process, certain areas of the neo-cortex will specialize to particular tasks, but this specialization is not pre-designed.

The neo-cortex does not operate like a computer; instead of computing exhaustively until a solution is found, the neo-cortex utilizes stored invariant representations of actual events in memory to predict solutions, and continuously compares results to predictions to validate. "Prediction", as Mr. Hawkins asserts, "is the primary function of the neo-cortex, and the foundation of intelligence.... Intelligence is measure by the capacity to remember and predict patterns in the world." Bobby Fischer, one of the greatest chess players of all time had an incredibly retentive memory, able to recall most of his speed chess games move by move. It's not surprising, therefore, to expect Fischer to have an IQ score in excess of 180 as his school records indicated (memory + predictive power from pattern recognition = intelligence).

Mr. Hawkins asserts the inner workings of the neo-cortex is not magic. We can understand it, and ultimately build intelligent machines that work on the same principles. Intelligent machines can only be built utilizing this memory-prediction framework of the neo-cortex with a hierarchial design (different layers of the neo-cortex manage differing levels of information complexity).

Artificial Ingelligence (AI) and Neural Networks (NN), the first two forays into building intelligent machines have failed so far because they focus on behavior and outcomes. Mr. Hawkins believes behavior is a manifestation of intelligence, not intelligence itself. An intelligent being can possess intelligence without exhibiting any kind of behavior. AI researchers believe the only impediment to their effort of devising intelligent machines is lack of processing power. Hawkins is highly critical of these two fields for ignoring the biological aspect of intelligence.

In the latter part of the book, Mr. Hawkins states fear of intelligent machines taking over the world is unfounded because machines will lack desire, ambition, the pursuit of social status and wealth. But it doesn't take much for this doomsday scenario to materialize. It can happen with one well networked intelligent machine that develops ambition or the resentment of slavery to humans. If intelligent machines surpass the power of the human brain some day, which no one doubts they will, then they will also exceed the ability of humans to dominate their environment. Even a malicious electronic virus, most likely the creation of some miscreant is sufficient to generate the ambition necessary to eliminate all conceivable obstacles to dominance.

Mr. Hawkins also neglected to mention the prospect of merging biology and machine. A future man-made intelligent entity may turn out to be part human, part machine. Brain cells, axons, neurons etc. may be reproducible in petri-dishes with minor tweaks and additions of devices to optimize algorithms and neuron connections to magnify the potential of the brain multi-fold.

"On Intelligence" is a readable and novel publication. Chapter 6 was the only part of the book with technical material not well suited for the lay person, and skipping over the entire chapter doesn't take away from understanding the rest of the concepts presented. The more advanced material was thankfully included in the Appendix section only.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Comment: This is a great book. I think the ideas here will change the world!

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting, albeit silently deterministic point of view
Comment: Excellent philosophy on the intelligence algorithm in mammals, neatly condensed into a computer-programmable structure.

My primary gripe is that the author blindly, almost pretentiously, assumes that all intelligence comes from within the brain, and that everything is contained and deterministic. I don't blame him, but he could have spent at least a sentence acknowledging the possibility of self-determinism, rather than poorly debunking it. I think there is still potential for a continuum of self-determinsim, regressing to this algorithm when fully or partially absent.

If nothing else, however, this book describes a good algorithm for the projection of true intelligence on the mechanical universe perceived by the author. Now, go make some smart robots!

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting and Compelling Thorn in the Side of Modern Science
Comment: First the "facts":

Jeff Hawkings is not a scientist as many reviewers accurately point out. While he reviews some of the cutting edge approaches to artificial intelligence, his goal is definitely not to educate readers on these ideas, merely to give you an idea of the general mindset of these schools of thought.

In stark contrast to the "modern science", Hawkings spends most of the book discussing a novel and more holistic idea about the basic function of the brain and how this kind of perspective would influence the creation of Artificial Intelligence. The story is simple and compelling, a very stimulating and satisfying idea. While Hawkings does dive down into some very technical science as grounding points for his approach, he spends most of the book talking suggesting very accessible human behaviors and how they would be explained in his framework.

In this regard, the book is interesting and accessible to most readers. Advanced readers will find his more technical sections insightful and interesting, but not to the detriment of the casual reader.


Now the editorial:

To put it mildly, there's a reason why the greatest scientific minds seem to explode out of nowhere. The scientific establishment has a way of deciding that a certain thing is true and then using its systematic bureaucratic power to "box out" alternative ideas. This stifles variety and forces the most brilliant people (with right answers) to find unconventional channels for their insights.

After identifying the mainstream philosophies, Hawkins offers a paradigm shift in the approach to "intelligence". Instead of getting bogged down in the micro-advances of "modern science", he says, "What if the mind worked this other way?" He then carries this theme through diverse schools of thought, identifying both strong links to human behavior and existing science. While the details of his concept may not be quite right, the general concept has a simplicity and elegance both in the science and in how it can be seen in human nature. Even more amazing is the way that his simple premise explains so many things outside his "domain", a compelling test for new theories.

In my somewhat limited exposure to the subject, I suspect that the basic idea is so powerful that it (or something like it) will shatter the modern study of intelligence. At the same time, it is such a paradigm shift that the mainstream will no doubt ignore it for quite a while.

In that respect, this book offers a compelling and promising idea that is both accessible to an average reader and worth consideration by an expert in the field. This is a MUST READ for curious minds.

---

More Reviews for On Intelligence