Picked this 2011 book up from the library and read it across the weekend. Written by Jeff Hawkins who founded the company that developed the Palm pilot and Treo. The book has had mixed reviews - see Forbes, Bill Gates, a range of reviews via Goodreads. Two long youtube videos on the topic as well - here and here.
The book introduces and rationalises another way to
understand how the brain works. The foreword written by Richard Dawkins
provides background into the origins and substantiality of the book’s overall
arguments (this foreword is worth working through). The author has a background in technology entrepreneurship. He set
up the company which introduced ‘smart phones’ in the form of palm pilots and
Treos. Using the resources gathered from his entrepreneurism, he has sat up a
research lab, think tank and network to study how the brain works.
The premise is that all the cells in the brain work in the
same way. The neo-cortext contains millions of cells, each dedicated to ‘storing’
and connecting information. The book proposes a different viewpoint on how
these cells go about organising and interpreting information. Information is gathered
in ‘cortical columns’ and the brain goes through a sequence of sieving through
these when information needs to be drawn on. This sieving is proposed to
be completed through a consensus like framework, providing some inkling as to
why it is difficult for beliefs and concepts, once well embedded into
individuals’ mindsets, to be changed. The brain uses frames of reference and
relies on these to come to conclusions.
The second half of the book looks into artificial
intelligence and the challenges of ‘replicating’ human thinking with
technology. Currently, AI can only accomplish specific tasks. If an AI is
‘trained’ to play chess, it cannot drive a car and vice versa. Therefore, the versatility
and agility of the human brain, is still not able to be replaced by AI. Brains
are intimately connected to individual experiences etc. and having a brain
without its organic sensory partner, is therefore difficult. We are still a
long way off from AI replacing humans.
The book is short (200 plus pages) with a short list of
suggested readings to follow up.
1 comment:
Technology has affected almost all aspects of our lives, education is no different. Over the past few years, e-learning has grown rapidly thanks to its extraordinary benefits for both students and instructors.
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