Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough
(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog
A Thousand Brains, A New Theory of Intelligence
By: Jeff Hawkins
Narrated by : Jamie Renell, Richard Dawkins
Jeffrey Hawkins (Author, electrical engineer, neuro-science researcher, business person.)
Jeff Hawkins presents an enlightening and, to some, frightening view of humanity’s current condition and future existence.
Enlightenment is in the explanation of how the brain works. Fear is in Hawkins explanation of how human beings make their own choices, with inference that humans have free will.
Jeff Hawkins explains a brain has two fundamental parts. One is a brain stem that extends from the limbic center of the brain. The new part is the neocortex.
The brain stem is the “old brain”, the seat of control for body function, with connection to the limbic mid-brain which contains emotion. The “new brain” is an evolutionary consequence of “old brain” origin. The neocortex surrounds and sits on top of the brain stem and constitutes approximately 70% of the human brain. The neocortex is Jeff Hawkins characterization as a “new brain”.
The remarkable insight of the author is that these two brains are interconnected by cortical columns that give humans superior intelligence. That insight opens the door to consciousness and the possibility of creating a dynamic relationship between man and machine.
Richard Dawkins, a British evolutionary biologist, writes a laudatory forward to “A Thousand Brains”.
Richard Dawkins comments give listeners clues to the momentous potential of Jeffrey Hawkins experimentally reproducible theory of how the brain works. Richard Dawkins ground-breaking explanation of “The Selfish Gene” explains why Jeff Hawkins theory of “A Thousand Brains” has two fundamental parts, an “old brain” and a “new brain”. Both brains are made up with cells with genes that have a singular purpose. Genes purpose is to genetically replicate themselves. Jeffrey Dawkins implies genes in the cells of the “old brain” came first and the “new brain” came later through natural selection.
Genes are deeply imbedded in cells, the basic building blocks of life.
Jeff Dawkins argues an old brain is the seat of life sustaining action with direct connection to the mid-brain below the neocortex. To Jeff Dawkins, a new brain is an evolutionary change for humans to reach beyond emotions and action for gene survival. The purpose of survival evolves with interaction between old and new brains to accommodate social change. The new brain recognizes gene survival requires more than a “kill or be killed” mentality inherent in “old brain” evolution.
Jeff Dawkins experimentally proves there are synaptic connections between new and old brains within cortical columns that offer choices for change to ensure gene survival. That synaptic connection allows humans to draw on thousands of recorded memories from a person’s life. These memories are hundreds of thousands of models of everything a human brain experiences. As models they are only representations of reality, but humans make decisions based on those remembrances.
The flaw is that human decisions are made based on representations of reality, not necessarily true reality. Experience models in human’ memory can be completely wrong.
The implication of Jeff Hawkins’ research is two edged. One edge leads to fictional characters like Dr. Moreau and Dr. Strangelove. (Moreau is a mad scientist who creates “humanimals” and Strangelove is a fictional Nazi American advisor who wants to drop a nuclear bomb on the Soviet Union during the cold war.) The other edge may lead to a possible eternal future for humankind with travel to other worlds should this one become uninhabitable.
The first edge implies an “old brain” mad science geneticist who creates a software program for cortical columns to rule the world with an “old brain” use of force.
The second edge is a software program for cortical columns that provides rational control of the “old brain” by the “new brain”. Both are intended to make decisions based on perceived circumstances for survival. However, the “old brain” uses force, while the “new brain” uses memory of past experience and reasoned accommodation to circumstance. In either case, humans take advantage of genes survival imperative. That imperative reinforces Richard Dawkins’ theory of the immortal gene that will do whatever it takes to survive.
Though the Dr. Moreau and Strangelove future is obviously negative, there is a flaw in Hawkins second edge. It is the unreliability of human memory. Hawkins answer to this flaw is that a meld between human and machine mind can improve the accuracy of memory. If memories are quickly and accurately recalled, machine/human choice is more likely to preserve life, at least a form of human life.
Still, one wonders who wins when there is conflict between human and machine memory. Does the “old brain” overtake “new brain” cortical column software and respond with emotion and violence?
Jeff Hawkins endorses Richard Hawkins explanation of “The Selfish Gene”. Evolution is simply a reflection of a gene’s desire to survive. Jeff Hawkins infers a “new brain” uses a genetic survival meme that controls “old brain” inclinations. The question is—will the selfish gene of an “old brain” recognize this change as consistent with gene’s evolutionary imperative.
Jeff Hawkins believes A.I. research fails to follow the path of the “I” (intelligence) in A.I. Jeff Hawkins has significantly contributed to human understanding of how the brain works. His remarkable engineering perspective posits immense potential for artificial intelligence. However, if machines can truly be made to think and adapt, will they be allies or adversaries as their thinking evolves? Hawkins, to avoid that possibility, suggests human brains and machines might be integrated to avoid extinction. With Richard Hawkins’ theory of gene survival instinct, a meld between human and machine assures, if not guarantees, human survival.
With true A.I, constructive work can be done in inhospitable human environments like Mars. However, to unleash machine intelligence requires a leap of faith. Can humans trust machines without melding minds with machine technology?
Dawkins notes it is impossible for A.I., as it is presently being developed, to be capable of terra-forming another planet for human survival. Machines have to be able to think like humans in order to deal with the unknown difficulties of terra-forming another planet. Using cortical column programing to create thinking machines might offer the human race many worlds but nature has always gotten in the way of species immortality.
This is an easily understood book for non-scientists to appreciate where genetic science may lead humans. To some, it offers hope. To others, it denies existence of species demise (nature’s cycle of life and death), pre-destination, and belief in God.
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