On Intelligence | 
 enlarge | Authors: Jeff Hawkins, Sandra Blakeslee
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  95 reviews
Sales Rank: 32026
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 0805078533
Dewey Decimal Number: 612.82
EAN: 9780805078534
ASIN: 0805078533
Publication Date: August 1, 2005
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Condition: Ships immediately! Perfect and New! Has a publisher remainder mark. Reprint. 2005 Paperback.
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Amazon.com
Jeff Hawkins, the high-tech success story behind PalmPilots and the Redwood Neuroscience Institute, does a lot of thinking about thinking. In On Intelligence Hawkins juxtaposes his two loves--computers and brains--to examine the real future of artificial intelligence. In doing so, he unites two fields of study that have been moving uneasily toward one another for at least two decades. Most people think that computers are getting smarter, and that maybe someday, they'll be as smart as we humans are. But Hawkins explains why the way we build computers today won't take us down that path. He shows, using nicely accessible examples, that our brains are memory-driven systems that use our five senses and our perception of time, space, and consciousness in a way that's totally unlike the relatively simple structures of even the most complex computer chip. Readers who gobbled up Ray Kurzweil's (The Age of Spiritual Machines and Steven Johnson's Mind Wide Open will find more intriguing food for thought here. Hawkins does a good job of outlining current brain research for a general audience, and his enthusiasm for brains is surprisingly contagious. --Therese Littleton
Product Description
From the inventor of the PalmPilot comes a new and compelling theory of intelligence, brain function, and the future of intelligent machines Jeff Hawkins, the man who created the PalmPilot, Treo smart phone, and other handheld devices, has reshaped our relationship to computers. Now he stands ready to revolutionize both neuroscience and computing in one stroke, with a new understanding of intelligence itself.Hawkins develops a powerful theory of how the human brain works, explaining why computers are not intelligent and how, based on this new theory, we can finally build intelligent machines.The brain is not a computer, but a memory system that stores experiences in a way that reflects the true structure of the world, remembering sequences of events and their nested relationships and making predictions based on those memories. It is this memory-prediction system that forms the basis of intelligence, perception, creativity, and even consciousness.In an engaging style that will captivate audiences from the merely curious to the professional scientist, Hawkins shows how a clear understanding of how the brain works will make it possible for us to build intelligent machines, in silicon, that will exceed our human ability in surprising ways.Written with acclaimed science writer Sandra Blakeslee, On Intelligence promises to completely transfigure the possibilities of the technology age. It is a landmark book in its scope and clarity.
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From the inventor of the PalmPilot comes a new and compelling theory of intelligence, brain function, and the future of intelligent machines.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 90 more reviews...
 Great Book! July 12, 2008
This is a great book. I think the ideas here will change the world!
 Interesting, albeit silently deterministic point of view June 19, 2008
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!
Fascinating Read, Full of Insights March 14, 2008
This is an excellent and intriguiging book. I have been studying this topic quite a lot recently and the most interesting aspects were the realization of the internal structures of the cortex. Also, the idea that each of the senses just sends a "pattern stream" of information that can be interpreted by the brain using the same algorithm--no matter what type it is--was a revelation.
Some of his explanations of how the cortex layers, V1, V2, V4 and IT worked as a little hazy but perhaps I just dropped some connections.
For anyone wishing to learn in depth how the brain works, this book is a gotta read.
Interesting and Compelling Thorn in the Side of Modern Science February 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
Good, Eh, Good December 24, 2007
Awesome until the middle chapters give you a very convoluted and spectulaticve take on this theory. Nice Beginning and End chapters though...
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