Unlocking the Potential of Artificial Intelligence: A Thousand Brains and a New Theory of Intelligence

Divyesh Mehta: It's a book worth reading

India on Feb 24, 2024

: If you'd like to understand how thinking works, this is THE book to read.

Italy on Jul 22, 2023

Farid Mheir: Hawkins présente sa théorie sur l'architecture du neocortex et jette les bases sur ce qu'est l'intelligence. Un excellent choix pour l'ingénieur que je suis et qui est intéressé par l'informatique et l'intelligence artificielle. A lire absolument. Et pour ceux qui ne l'auraient pas encore fait, je recommande de lire son premier livre "on intelligence" car cela donne un excellent contexte à cette lecture.

Canada on Feb 07, 2022

Moe: It depends on how you look at it and what are you looking for. Not scientific, although presents scientific findings in a simple way.
The book is full of opinions for the author, presented in an interesting inviting way. Although I did not buy many of it, but it was all though provoking to me. I am looking for books to stir my brains, this one did a good job. I am sick of books that try to stuff opinions into my brain. Lovely book. Fascinating.

The issue I had with this book and many other books is that authors lose momentum somewhere in the book and keep going to fill pages (it seems to me). The first half or so of this book is awesome, but bits of the end seemed like talking to a random people on an airplane.

United States on Feb 02, 2022

Orlando: After reading many books on the field of artificial intelligence, this is certainly the best approach to solve questions about the future of AI and how to frame it.

Mexico on Jan 09, 2022

Cliente Amazon: Teoria muito interessante sobre o funcionamento do cérebro, muito bem escrito, leitura um pouco densa, tive que ler duas vezes mas valeu a pena. Vamos ver nos proximos anos se essa teoria se prova verdadeira.

Brazil on Jan 03, 2022

MrTechieGuy: Hawkins spends a lot of verbiage describing the physiological structure of the neocortex. I found this interesting and informative, but as a non-expert on such things, I suspect that this is all well known. In particular, I'm assuming that it's standard and accepted that the neocortex is composed of about 150,000 cortical columns that appear essentially identical, although there does seem to be some specialization of cortical columns according to the area of the brain in which they are located. Likewise, I'm assuming it's well known that each cortical column is composed of several hundred minicolumns, each distinguishable under a microscope, and that each minicolumn contains about a hundred neurons spanning all the neocortical layers. All in all, a single cortical column is composed of about 100,000 neurons and 500,000,000 synapses (connections between neurons). Finally, I'll assume it's well known that cortical columns are sparsely interconnected, with some connections stretching long distances across the neocortex.

As for revelations that he and his research group have come up with, Hawkins presents the notion that cortical columns use something he calls...

United States on Jun 22, 2021

Rob Haitani: This is a ground-breaking book that can be appreciated on multiple levels.

The first section of the book outlines a biological theory of how the brain works. There are many books written about what the brain does, but a surprising paucity of detailed theories explaining *how* it works. In full disclosure, I worked at Numenta a few years ago, so I am biased. But much of that bias comes from exposure to the rigor with which Jeff and the team approached the problem of solving the problem of intelligence. They weren't trying to find *a* model of intelligence. They were seeking *the* model that the neocortex applies, and build algorithms that replicated the mechanisms. So they did not allow themselves to take shortcuts--if they found any neurological evidence that contradicted their theories, they forced themselves to modify the theories or explain the discrepancy. I've been following Hawkins' work too long to have a perspective about whether his theories are understandable to a layperson on a first read. If you suspect he is hand waving, though, I can tell you that his theories go much deeper than what he described in the book. It took me months to understand...

United States on Mar 21, 2021

Christa M: Honestly, I'd never thought much about how my brain works, but after reading this book, I'll never think of my brain - or myself - the same way again.

The book is divided into three parts. The first part is devoted to explaining the neuroscience details behind his new theory of intelligence. I found it fascinating and very readable. The second and third parts focus on machine and human intelligence, respectively.

It was the third part of the book that caught me off guard in such a beautiful way. It was full of ideas I'd never heard before, and frankly, I found them so enticing, I couldn't put the book down. The explanation of how we create false beliefs couldn't be more timely. The possibilities for addressing our ongoing struggle between genes and knowledge were stimulating and surprising.

The book has a hopeful feel, and I walked away from it feeling optimistic and enlightened. I highly recommend it.

United States on Mar 15, 2021