The first thing that came to mind reading this was that broadly it does not seem "novel", rather it reminds me of the many agents theory that makes the "Society

The first thing that came to mind reading this was that broadly it does not seem "novel", rather it reminds me of the many agents theory that makes the "Society of the Mind" [1] as published by Marvin Minsky in the 80s. Perhaps is the focus on the neocortex that is novel? I recall reading what looks like the same neocortex-focused theory in Jeff Hawkins earlier book "On Intelligence". I'll have to read the book to see what new insights are developed. 1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Mind https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Mind 2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Intelligence https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Intelligence