On Intelligence

By: Jeff Hawkins, Sandra Blakeslee

Narrated by: Jeff Hawkins, Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Download the accompanying booklet of brain function illustrations, examples, and tests.

©2004 Jeff Hawkins and Sandra Blakeslee (P)2005 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"[Hawkins's] argument is complex but comprehensible, and his curiosity will intrigue anyone interested in the lessons neurobiology may hold for AI." (Booklist)
"[Hawkins] fully anticipates, even welcomes, the controversy he may provoke within the scientific community and admits that he might be wrong, even as he offers a checklist of potential discoveries that could prove him right. His engaging speculations are sure to win fans." (Publishers Weekly)

fantastic insight

this is a must read for anyone doing research or development with ai. It is quite accessible to the lay listener with a good background in high school science. It is so dense in information that it might better be read

Jeff is brilliant ... but ...

Jeff Hawkins is a thinker. I was deeply impressed with his capacity for creativity and thorough investigation. The only thing that rubbed me the wrong way was in the later half of the book when speculations about consciousness abound. I was surprised to hear such a deep thinker jump to do many absurd and unproven conclusions. I'm agnostic myself, and I've made it a point to require proof no matter what. For this reason, Jeff's unfounded package of truths and claims concerning the nature of consciousness bothered me. To taint such an amazing book with a dip in the pool of unfounded claims was enough for me to dock a star. I didn't want to ... but I had to.
other than that this book is revolutionary! As an AI/ML researcher & software engineer, this is one of the most valuable books to bridge the digital with the biological.

Retcon

Excellent in all aspects especially for someone with very minimal understanding of neuroscience and is well worth buying for your library

Why hasn't Hawkins hasn't made a bigger splash?

I don't normally talk to friends about what I'm reading. But for the past two weeks I've been obsessively telling friends - even my 78-year-old mother - about this book. Maybe it's just me, but I find hearing On Intelligence has changed the way I think about computing and human intelligence. I suddenly feel I understand a range of phenomena which have intrigued or baffled me for years.

I can't do justice to Hawkins's thesis, but I'll take a stab. He claims to have figured out how the cortex - the part of the brain that was "new" to mammals, and whose size seems to be the greatest difference between humans and other primates - works. In other words, he asserts a general theory of what makes humans intelligent, and more generally, of what we're doing when we think.

Based on several lines of evidence, he rejects the idea that the cortex is primarily sifting through input data, looking for general patterns, with each stage summarizing and passing information up to more abstract levels. Instead, Hawkins asserts that the cortex is mainly MODELING the world we sense, and spends the great bulk of its effort actually passing predictive data DOWN to lower levels, including sensory areas.

These predictions are broken into an unbeliveably detailed representation of the world, modeling at the level of individual sensory neuron, what we will see, hear, touch, in the next second or two. Wherever this prediction is more-or-less right, it is treated as "confirmed" and the world we experience is mainly THAT PREDICTION, not a summation of this instant's actual nerve receptors' sensations. Where the prediction is NOT confirmed, an "exception" is generated, which either causes minor adjustments in the predicted scenario, or draws our conscious attention to the unexpected event.

If that doesn't make sense, listen to the book. There's a lot more to it.

This book has changed the way I see the world. I think it's a really big deal.

Enjoyable, but Reductionist Science at its Best

No doubt Jeff Hawkins is a brilliant cortex, given that each one of us and the world we live in is nothing more than the experience of an active cortex. But he is not a wise human, which, in my mind, is the greatest achievement of homo sapiens, not the ability to recreate intellience in a machine.

It is telling that he admits to never studying the nature of consciousness, but in one pithy statement of "fact", reduces it to one thing - the neo-cortex experience. When the cortex ceases to function, so does consciousness. It's not that he holds this "belief" that is troublesome, but rather the arrogance with which he holds his cortex-created model of the world to be "the truth."

This book is an excellent example of the scientist telling us how the trunk of an elephant works and the value of putting that information to work for us humans, but the consistent conclusion that the elephant IS the trunk is tiresome, offensive, and indicative of an immature soul.

Not being schooled in AI or neuroscience, I have no judgement on his theory - other than it is too reductionistic in general - and as one who has a passion for understanding as much as I can about being human, the discussion of how the brain works and what a model of this might be was enjoyable.

As for the narrator, I found the voice professional and easy to listen to. What struck me having heard Jeff's voice, however, was how different the tone and character was between them. Jeff's voice - in my Blink judgement - exudes enthusiastic immaturity; the actor's voice is calm, maturity. For the record, my invariant representation of wisdom (i.e., mature intelligence) is based on 30 yrs of studying religion, sprituality, and human development. IMHO, my cortex is well-trained in this area.

In sum, I welcome the endeavor to create truly intelligent machines, but I suspect Jeff & others will learn a lot more about the complexity of the human experience along the way.

mostly interesting

I enjoyed the content of most of this book. It starts out strong and grabs your imagination, but in the end it gets quite tedious. There is a switch in narrators after the intro. Unfortunately, the site doesn't mention this or give the name. The 'ghost' narrator is one to be avoided in my opinion. He reads the text with a simpering quality to his tone. I would avoid any books read by him, if I only knew who it was.... The book makes reference to figures and publications. The figures can be downloaded from audible, but the quality is laughable. I wonder why the author doesn't provide readable copy. On the whole I was glad to have 'heard' the book.

Fun, interesting and thought provoking...

An excellent book well worth the listen. Not very technical, and a lot is left out. The most frustrating is the almost total lack of discussion of feedback, neuron death, and connectivity changes. I never found this tedious, indeed I would love two more volumes. Even if the authors theories are utterly wrong, anyone interested in intelligence or AI would benefit from reading this book. The author is a bit of a salesperson, a bit conceited, but may very well be correct, and is, in any case, quite interesting.

An intriguing theory and enjoyable listen

On Intelligence is an excellent book and I strongly recommend it for both science and non-science types. Anyone interested in the wonder and structure of intelligence should enjoy this book.

The book is well-written and very entertaining. Mr. Hawkins and Ms. Blakeslee did a great job. The narrator (Stephan Rudnicki) is excellent and makes listening easy and enjoyable. He also handles well the occasional humor (some fairly dry) that the author injects.

This book is good for both the scientist and non-scientist. The first 5 chapters lead the listener through the background of Jeff Hawkins and his theory of human intelligence. I think they are well done in their treatment of the subject and critically important in understanding the later chapters and Mr. Hawkins intelligence theory. The first 4 chapters culminate in his new framework of intelligence given in Chapter 5. Chapter 5 then leads to his vision of intelligent machines in Chapter 8.

Mr. Hawkins presents a novel and intriguing new way of looking at human intelligence. He explains were AI and other researchers have made mistakes in looking at the brain and in considering it analogous to a super-computer. He says it is very different than a computer and then proceeds to lay out his memory-prediction model of intelligence and theory of brain function.

I appreciate Mr. Hawkin's "Testable Predictions" in the Appendix. He provides the testable predictions so that researchers can test his conclusions and theory on the nature of intelligence. I am a little puzzled that he only calls on young researchers and entrepreneurs to take up the call to test out his theory. Those well into their careers may be just as interested in working on the subject and injecting venture capital into new ideas and companies. He should have called on all with an interest in the subject to join in the work to understand human intelligence better and create truly intelligent machines.

Intelligence- In Plain English

In 2005 I had a stroke. That event left me with loss of vision in the left hemisphere and a few cognitive concerns. This audio book while not the Stroke Survivors handbook provided me nourishing insights to the brain's structure and core intelligence. Both well written and read the information goes beyond our perception of intelligent robots and the quest for artificial intelligent (AI) software. Plus, you don't have to be a neuro jock or programmer to appreciate the principles conveyed. I'm reasonably certain anyone with an interest of the Scarecrow will find this book helpful and delightful. Enjoy the book. It provides many moments that will cause you to ponder and say uh hah.

I liked part 1...

...but towards the end I zoned out and haven't had any desire to listen to part 2. This genre usually holds my interest too. I can't really complain about anything - it's certainly not a bad book. I just didn't find it riveting.