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For a good read on the subject of AI and how humans think check out the book OnIntelligence by Jeff Hawkins. It covers some about the previous attempts at AI an

For a good read on the subject of AI and how humans think check out the book OnIntelligence by Jeff Hawkins. It covers some about the previous attempts at AI and why they failed. http://www.amazon.com/Intelligence-Jeff-Hawkins/dp/0805074562 http://www.amazon.com/Intelligence-Jeff-Hawkins/dp/080507456...

pchristensen 18y ago
That book is in my top 5 favorite books ever!
- 9oliYQjP 18y ago
  I keep hearing about this book. Can anybody tell me if it is a pseudo-scientific look at the topic? I don't mean this in a particularly negative way. Rather, what I mean is does it put forth a lot of as-yet unsubstantiated claims perhaps backed up with some hand-waving analysis?
  - pchristensen 18y ago
    Jeff Hawkins (the author, creator of PalmPilot) has always been interested in how the brain works, and once he made his Palm money, he started a neuroscience institute. That research along with his own and what he read led him to his theory of how the brain works. It's extracted from lots of real, hard research. He then started a company (Numenta http://www.numenta.com/ http://www.numenta.com/) to create a software implementation of that theory, which has a set of tools you can download and play with. They've had good results consistent with the theories in the book and had some impressive results. There's also a recording of a talk he gave at an O'Reilly conference: http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3499.html http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3499.html So long story short, it is for real. When I read it, I had to stop every 20 minutes or so to catch my breath I found it so exciting and enlightening.
  - andreyf 18y ago
    The book is great. His criticisms are spot-on. His proposed solution is bold, but as of yet, unproven. It's probably wrong, and in a way, he admits to that in the book (he says we'll need a lot of changes). If you get bored on chapters 6, skip it.
    - lacker 18y ago
      I second the recommendation of skipping chapter 6 - when I read this comment I went to check where my bookmark is because I had gotten bored while re-reading, and it was near the start of chapter 6 ;-)
  - lacker 18y ago
    It is not "scientific" in the sense that it does not prove its claims. But it's not "pseudo-scientific" either because it doesn't pretend it's proving claims. It's more like a book of interesting ideas from a smart guy written for a general audience. It's different from most AI in that it's very focused on drawing inspiration from neurobiology, while still being written from a "computer guy" perspective. Here's an excerpt that might give you an idea of what it's like. It's in support of one of his key points, that many current AI methods ignore the role of change over time, whereas in your brain it's crucial. "You know the alphabet. Try saying it backward. You can't because you don't usually experience it backward. Your memory of the alphabet is a sequence of patterns. It isn't something stored or recalled in an instant or in an arbitrary order. The same thing does for the days of the week, the months of the year, your phone number, and countless other things. "Your memory for songs is a great example of temporal sequences in memory. Think of a tune you know. I like to use 'Somewhere over the Rainbow.' You cannot imagine the entire song at once, only in sequence. You can start at the beginning or with the chorus, and then you play through it, filling in the notes one after another. You can't recall the song backward, just as you can't recall it all at once. You were first exposed to 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' as it played through time, and you can only recall it in the same way you learned it." Other interesting discussions are around the role of feedback and hierarchy in the brain's structure. I recommend this book to anyone who's a good programmer with some interest in AI.

pchristensen 18y ago

That book is in my top 5 favorite books ever!

9oliYQjP 18y ago
I keep hearing about this book. Can anybody tell me if it is a pseudo-scientific look at the topic? I don't mean this in a particularly negative way. Rather, what I mean is does it put forth a lot of as-yet unsubstantiated claims perhaps backed up with some hand-waving analysis?
- pchristensen 18y ago
  Jeff Hawkins (the author, creator of PalmPilot) has always been interested in how the brain works, and once he made his Palm money, he started a neuroscience institute. That research along with his own and what he read led him to his theory of how the brain works. It's extracted from lots of real, hard research. He then started a company (Numenta http://www.numenta.com/ http://www.numenta.com/) to create a software implementation of that theory, which has a set of tools you can download and play with. They've had good results consistent with the theories in the book and had some impressive results. There's also a recording of a talk he gave at an O'Reilly conference: http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3499.html http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3499.html So long story short, it is for real. When I read it, I had to stop every 20 minutes or so to catch my breath I found it so exciting and enlightening.
- andreyf 18y ago
  The book is great. His criticisms are spot-on. His proposed solution is bold, but as of yet, unproven. It's probably wrong, and in a way, he admits to that in the book (he says we'll need a lot of changes). If you get bored on chapters 6, skip it.
  - lacker 18y ago
    I second the recommendation of skipping chapter 6 - when I read this comment I went to check where my bookmark is because I had gotten bored while re-reading, and it was near the start of chapter 6 ;-)
- lacker 18y ago
  It is not "scientific" in the sense that it does not prove its claims. But it's not "pseudo-scientific" either because it doesn't pretend it's proving claims. It's more like a book of interesting ideas from a smart guy written for a general audience. It's different from most AI in that it's very focused on drawing inspiration from neurobiology, while still being written from a "computer guy" perspective. Here's an excerpt that might give you an idea of what it's like. It's in support of one of his key points, that many current AI methods ignore the role of change over time, whereas in your brain it's crucial. "You know the alphabet. Try saying it backward. You can't because you don't usually experience it backward. Your memory of the alphabet is a sequence of patterns. It isn't something stored or recalled in an instant or in an arbitrary order. The same thing does for the days of the week, the months of the year, your phone number, and countless other things. "Your memory for songs is a great example of temporal sequences in memory. Think of a tune you know. I like to use 'Somewhere over the Rainbow.' You cannot imagine the entire song at once, only in sequence. You can start at the beginning or with the chorus, and then you play through it, filling in the notes one after another. You can't recall the song backward, just as you can't recall it all at once. You were first exposed to 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' as it played through time, and you can only recall it in the same way you learned it." Other interesting discussions are around the role of feedback and hierarchy in the brain's structure. I recommend this book to anyone who's a good programmer with some interest in AI.