Compendium 42 — A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence
“It is human nature - aka old brain - to suspect everyone wants to steal your idea, where the reality is that you are lucky if anyone cares about your idea at all.” ― Jeff Hawkins
📖 Brief Overview
Neuroscience presents more questions than answers despite its perceived advancements. Current understanding suggests the brain integrates sensory information to form perceptions, computes in some manner, and operates hierarchically to construct a model of the world. Neuroscientist Jeff Hawkins challenges this conventional view in his book, A Thousand Brains.
Hawkins introduces the Thousand Brains Theory of Intelligence, proposing that the brain comprises numerous computing units called cortical columns. Each column processes information similarly but with unique connections, collectively creating multiple models of the world that the brain manages through a voting mechanism. By viewing the brain as managing countless individual thoughts rather than constructing one unified thought, Hawkins addresses long-standing neurological puzzles.
Furthermore, Hawkins explores implications beyond neuroscience, delving into the potential for artificial intelligence (AI) development. By understanding the brain's workings, Hawkins envisions AI systems capable of autonomous learning, dispelling fears of superintelligent entities and envisioning a future where human and machine intelligence merge.
A Thousand Brains represents a paradigm shift in intelligence research, blending theoretical neuroscience with a vision for advanced AI systems. Hawkins's work offers a groundbreaking perspective that could transform our understanding of intelligence and the creation of intelligent machines.
💡 Three Key Takeaways
1. Reference Frames
I. Intelligence is intimately tied to the brain’s model of the world; therefore, to understand how the brain creates intelligence, we have to figure out how the brain, made of simple cells, learns a model of the world and everything in it. Our 2016 discovery explains how the brain learns this model. We deduced that the neocortex stores everything we know, all our knowledge, using something called reference frames. I will explain this more fully later, but for now, consider a paper map as an analogy. A map is a type of model: a map of a town is a model of the town, and the grid lines, such as lines of latitude and longitude, are a type of reference frame. A map’s grid lines, its reference frame, provide the structure of the map. A reference frame tells you where things are located relative to each other, and it can tell you how to achieve goals, such as how to get from one location to another. We realized that the brain’s model of the world is built using maplike reference frames. Not one reference frame, but hundreds of thousands of them. Indeed, we now understand that most of the cells in your neocortex are dedicated to creating and manipulating reference frames, which the brain uses to plan and think.
II. In more abstract terms, we can think of reference frames as a way to organize any kind of knowledge. A reference frame for a coffee cup corresponds to a physical object that we can touch and see. However, reference frames can also be used to organize knowledge of things we can’t directly sense. Think of all the things you know that you haven’t directly experienced. For example, if you have studied genetics, then you know about DNA molecules. You can visualize their double-helix shape, you know how they encode sequences of amino acids using the ATCG code of nucleotides, and you know how DNA molecules replicate by unzipping. Of course, nobody has ever directly seen or touched a DNA molecule. We can’t because they are too small. To organize our knowledge of DNA molecules, we make pictures as if we could see them and models as if we could touch them. This allows us to store our knowledge of DNA molecules in reference frames—just like our knowledge of coffee cups.
Reference frames are not an optional component of intelligence; they are the structure in which all information is stored in the brain. Every fact you know is paired with a location in a reference frame. To become an expert in a field such as history requires assigning historical facts to locations in an appropriate reference frame. Organizing knowledge this way makes the facts actionable. Recall the analogy of a map. By placing facts about a town onto a grid-like reference frame, we can determine what actions are needed to achieve a goal, such as how to get to a particular restaurant. The uniform grid of the map makes the facts about the town actionable. This principle applies to all knowledge.
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