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On Intelligence (Paperback)
by Jeff Hawkins, Sandra Blakeslee
| Category:
Artificial Intelligence (AI), Science, Non-fiction |
| Market price: ¥ 168.00
MSL price:
¥ 158.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
This mind expanding book delivers a new and compelling theory of intelligence, brain function, and the future of intelligent machines. |
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Author: Jeff Hawkins, Sandra Blakeslee
Publisher: Owl Books; Reprint edition
Pub. in: July, 2005
ISBN: 0805078533
Pages: 272
Measurements: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.7 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00573
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- Awards & Credential -
The author is the man who created the Palm Pilot, Treo smart phone, and other handheld devices. |
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- MSL Picks -
Jeff Hawkins is "crazy about brains." In this readable book, the electronic engineer combines his training as a computer designer and his self-education into the seat of human intelligence and posits how he believes we can make machine intelligence.
Hawkins believes the major historical mistake of AI is in having ignored the human brain's design and structure. What we need isn't more power (because today's computers run much faster than the electrochemical synaptic reset times of the human brain), but better design. The components of Hawkins' synthetic brain would include the incorporation of time as a function, the recognition of the importance of feedback, and a reckoning of the brain's architecture.
Hawkins is also critical of older AI models which suggested that behavior is the primary indicator of intelligence. He observes that we can be intelligent, quietly, in a dark room. One of my criticisms is that Hawkins observes that we probably have built in to our human brains old code no longer needed; remnants of "legacy code." I'd suggest, though, that one man's "legacy code" might really contain essential, cryptic subroutines. Regardless, Hawkins has great respect for the natural development that has resulted in the human brain.
In short, Hawkins develops his theme as the brain being a repository of data and streams of new input with resulting feedback from which and in which the brain seeks patterns. It's the difference between established patterns, acceptable variants, and new material that makes up the bulk of what our brain does. And it is the anticipation of patterns and acceptable variants that makes up intelligence. I have been a disciple of Doug Hofstadter (e.g. Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid) and his "patterns and recursion" look at intelligence for quite some time, so taking a few more steps as required by Hawkins wasn't particularly difficult for me.
The chapter on the function of the cortex was the most difficult and enjoyable for me, with his conclusions and look forward being the icing on the cake. All in all a very enjoyable look at one man's vision for the future of intelligent machines in one nice, tidy, unified presentation. (From quoting Mark Lee, USA)
Target readers:
General readers
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Jeff Hawkins is one of the most successful and highly regarded computer architects and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. He founded Palm Computing and Handspring, and created the Redwood Neuroscience Institute to promote research on memory and cognition. Also a member of the scientific board of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, he lives in northern California.
Sandra Blakeslee has been writing about science and medicine for The New York Times for more than thirty years and is the co-author of Phantoms in the Brain by V. S. Ramachandran and of Judith Wallerstein's bestselling books on psychology and marriage. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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From the Publisher:
Jeff Hawkins, the man who created the Palm Pilot, Treo smart phone, and other handheld devices, has reshaped our relationship to computers. Now he is revolutionizing neuro-science and computing with this new look at intelligence itself. In On Intelligence, Hawkins develops a powerful theory of how the human brain works, explaining why computers are not intelligent. 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. Based on this new theory, we can finally build intelligent machines, ones that will likely exceed human ability in surprising and useful ways. Written with acclaimed science writer Sandra Blakeslee and endorsed by a host of scientists and technology experts, On Intelligence reveals how we truly think and how this understanding will transform the technology age.
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| Let me show why computing is not intelligence. Consider the task of catching a ball. Someone throws a ball to you, you see it traveling towards you, and in less than a second you snatch it out of the air. This doesn't seem too difficult-until you try to program a robot arm to do the same. As many a graduate student has found out the hard way, it seems nearly impossible. When engineers or computer scientists try to solve this problem, they first try to calculate the flight of the ball to determine where it will be when it reaches the arm. This calculation requires solving a set of equations of the type you learn in high school physics. Next, all the joints of a robotic arm have to be adjusted in concert to move the hand into the proper position. This whole operation has to be repeated multiple times, for as the ball approaches, the robot gets better information about its location and trajectory. If the robot waits to start moving until it knows exactly where the ball will land it will be too late to catch it. A computer requires millions of steps to solve the numerous mathematical equations to catch the ball. And although it's imaginable that a computer might be programmed to successfully solve this problem, the brain solves it in a different, faster, more intelligent way. |
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| View all 12 comments |
Richard Lipkin, Scientific American (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-30 00:00>
This book and my life are animated by two passions," writes Hawkins in On Intelligence. Those passions are mobile computing and brains. This curious combination becomes less puzzling when one realizes that Hawkins is a founder not only of two leading mobile computing companies - Palm Computing and Handspring - but also of the Redwood Neuroscience Institute in Menlo Park, Calif., which explores memory and cognition. Hawkins contends that the human brain and intelligence have little in common with today’s computing systems. Therefore, he offers his perspective on artificial intelligence, neural networks, cognition, consciousness and creativity, with the goal of explaining the mind. The book is elegantly written with Blakeslee, a veteran science writer for the New York Times. At its core, the book puts forth Hawkins’s "memory- prediction framework of intelligence" - a model of cognition positing that the main function of the human neocortex, and the basis of intelligence, is to make predictions. The brain constantly compares new sensory information with stored memories and experiences and combines the information to anticipate the future. In essence, as we wander around, we build a reserve of information from which we construct an internal model of the world. But we constantly update that model. When we see a friend wearing a new hat, the brain automatically predicts what that person ought to look like and contrasts that prediction with the new sensory rendering, updating its model. Brain prediction "is so pervasive," Hawkins says, "that what we ‘perceive’... does not come solely from our senses." The continuous interplay of sensory input, memory, prediction and feedback - which occurs instantly through parallel processing in the neocortex - ultimately gives rise to consciousness and intelligence. "Correct predictions," Hawkins contends, "result in understanding." Hawkins argues that creativity and imagination emerge from prediction as well. Imagination utilizes a neural mechanism to transform predictions into a form of sensory input - which is why our fantasies have such a strong "feel." Moving on, Hawkins says that true machine intelligence will arise only if it is rooted in the same principles as brain-based intelligence. By the book’s end, Hawkins proffers a "comprehensive theory of how the brain works," of "what intelligence is," and of "how your brain creates it." He acknowledges that many aspects of his theory have been developed by other scientists and that his role is to weave a comprehensive explanation. As such, this book provides some provocative thoughts on how the brain and the mind may actually function. |
James D.Watson (president, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory & Nobel laureate in Physiology) (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-30 00:00>
On Intelligence will have a big impact; everyone should read it. In the same way that Erwin Schrödinger's 1943 classic What is Life? made how molecules store genetic information then the big problem for biology, On Intelligence lays out the framework for understanding the brain. |
Malcolm Young (neurobiologist and provost, University of Newcastle) (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-30 00:00>
Brilliant and imbued with startling clarity. On Intelligence is the most important book in neuroscience, psychology, and artificial intelligence in a generation. |
John Doerr (partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers) (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-30 00:00>
Read this book. Burn all the others. It is original, inventive, and thoughtful, from one of the world's foremost thinkers. Jeff Hawkins will change the way the world thinks about intelligence and the prospect of intelligent machines. |
View all 12 comments |
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