On Intelligence
by: Jeff Hawkins, Sandra Blakeslee
List Price: $25.00
Prices subject to change.
Price: $9.37
You Save: $15.63 (63%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Amazon.com Review:
Jeff Hawkins, the high-tech success story behind PalmPilots and the Redwood Neuroscience Institute, does a lot of thinking about thinking. In On Intelligence Hawkins juxtaposes his two loves--computers and brains--to examine the real future of artificial intelligence. In doing so, he unites two fields of study that have been moving uneasily toward one another for at least two decades.Most people think that computers are getting smarter, and that maybe someday, they'll be as smart as we humans are. But Hawkins explains why the way we build computers today won't take us down that path. He shows, using nicely accessible examples, that our brains are memory-driven systems that use our five senses and our perception of time, space, and consciousness in a way that's totally unlike the relatively simple structures of even the most complex computer chip.Readers who gobbled up Ray Kurzweil's (The Age of Spiritual Machines and Steven Johnson's Mind Wide Open will find more intriguing food for thought here. Hawkins does a good job of outlining current brain research for a general audience, and his enthusiasm for brains is surprisingly contagious. --Therese Littleton
Product Description:
From the inventor of the PalmPilot comes a new and compelling theory of intelligence, brain function, and the future of intelligent machines
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.
Jeff Hawkins, the high-tech success story behind PalmPilots and the Redwood Neuroscience Institute, does a lot of thinking about thinking. In On Intelligence Hawkins juxtaposes his two loves--computers and brains--to examine the real future of artificial intelligence. In doing so, he unites two fields of study that have been moving uneasily toward one another for at least two decades.Most people think that computers are getting smarter, and that maybe someday, they'll be as smart as we humans are. But Hawkins explains why the way we build computers today won't take us down that path. He shows, using nicely accessible examples, that our brains are memory-driven systems that use our five senses and our perception of time, space, and consciousness in a way that's totally unlike the relatively simple structures of even the most complex computer chip.Readers who gobbled up Ray Kurzweil's (The Age of Spiritual Machines and Steven Johnson's Mind Wide Open will find more intriguing food for thought here. Hawkins does a good job of outlining current brain research for a general audience, and his enthusiasm for brains is surprisingly contagious. --Therese Littleton
Product Description:
From the inventor of the PalmPilot comes a new and compelling theory of intelligence, brain function, and the future of intelligent machines
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.
Alternate Versions:
Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category:
- Books » Specialty Stores » Custom Stores » Bargain Books » Computers & Internet » General
- Books » Specialty Stores » Custom Stores » Bargain Books » Computers & Internet » General AAS
- Books » Specialty Stores » Custom Stores » Bargain Books » Nonfiction » Psychology
- Books » Subjects » Computers & Internet » Computer Science » Artificial Intelligence » Neural Networks
- Books » Subjects » Computers & Internet » Computer Science » Artificial Intelligence » General
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- Landmark Book, but with a couple of rushed things
This book is a very interesting reading for everyone who wants to get a hold of a emerging framework for understanding intelligence, specially as a it emerges from a common algorithm in the neurocortex.
The neuro and cognitive sciences are, by the experts own admission, lacking a common and powerful framework where to try out the large corpus of data that exists and continue to be collected. This book presents a very compelling hypothesis for one. Basically Jeff argues that
Read More
Rating: 
- Understand your interface with reality
Darwin -- > Origin of Species --> You do not exist by magic.
Nicolaus Copernicus --> On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres --> The universe does not orbit around you.
Jeff Hawkins --> On Intelligence --> Your brain is not a mystery.
This book changed the way I see everything, every day.
If you get the audiobook version, make sure you download the e-book too.You will want to see the diagrams.
Rating: - Excellent book
Although the details of his theory might not be exact, the theory definitely sheds some light on how the brain might *actually* work.
Hawkins provides, based on other discoveries, a framework of thinking for the layman. Without requiring deep understanding of neurons molecular behavior (well explained in "In Search of Memory" by Kandel), he illustrates some really bright ideas on how they all connect together to create intelligence.
BTW, in an interview to The Brain Science ... Read More
Rating: - Read it right now
This book has changed my life. It's ground braking. The model of human neo-cortex presented in this book is so simple yet so powerful that it will catch you right away. The fact that the author is actually implementing the ideas in a software product gives a lot of credit to it. If you are interested in how the mind works or if humans are just complex machines you definitely need to read this
Rating: - Fascinating
Whether or not JH's hypothesis proves correct (see other reviews for details of the hypothesis), it certainly demands attention.Those who level the criticism that JH does not prove his claims have a point.But they're also beside the point.JH does not assert that his hypothesis is true, only that it or something like it, is VERY LIKELY true.At the conclusion of this highly readable book, JH is careful to remind the reader -- per philosopher of science Karl Popper -- that no hypothesis can be proven ... Read More
- Landmark Book, but with a couple of rushed thingsThis book is a very interesting reading for everyone who wants to get a hold of a emerging framework for understanding intelligence, specially as a it emerges from a common algorithm in the neurocortex.
The neuro and cognitive sciences are, by the experts own admission, lacking a common and powerful framework where to try out the large corpus of data that exists and continue to be collected. This book presents a very compelling hypothesis for one. Basically Jeff argues that
Read More
- Understand your interface with realityDarwin -- > Origin of Species --> You do not exist by magic.
Nicolaus Copernicus --> On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres --> The universe does not orbit around you.
Jeff Hawkins --> On Intelligence --> Your brain is not a mystery.
This book changed the way I see everything, every day.
If you get the audiobook version, make sure you download the e-book too.You will want to see the diagrams.
- Excellent bookAlthough the details of his theory might not be exact, the theory definitely sheds some light on how the brain might *actually* work.
Hawkins provides, based on other discoveries, a framework of thinking for the layman. Without requiring deep understanding of neurons molecular behavior (well explained in "In Search of Memory" by Kandel), he illustrates some really bright ideas on how they all connect together to create intelligence.
BTW, in an interview to The Brain Science ... Read More
- Read it right nowThis book has changed my life. It's ground braking. The model of human neo-cortex presented in this book is so simple yet so powerful that it will catch you right away. The fact that the author is actually implementing the ideas in a software product gives a lot of credit to it. If you are interested in how the mind works or if humans are just complex machines you definitely need to read this
- FascinatingWhether or not JH's hypothesis proves correct (see other reviews for details of the hypothesis), it certainly demands attention.Those who level the criticism that JH does not prove his claims have a point.But they're also beside the point.JH does not assert that his hypothesis is true, only that it or something like it, is VERY LIKELY true.At the conclusion of this highly readable book, JH is careful to remind the reader -- per philosopher of science Karl Popper -- that no hypothesis can be proven ... Read More
