On Intelligence (Jeff Hawkins)
《創智慧》，遠流出版公司，2006.05
2004 On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins, Sandra Blakeslee (With)
2004 On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins, Sandra Blakeslee (With) Barnes&Noble.com
2005 On Intelligence (Paperback) Books-A-Million
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Jeff Hawkins (1957-) On Intelligence
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2005 On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins and Sandra Blakeslee (Paperback - Jul 14, 2005)
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 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Hawkins designed the technical innovations that make handheld computers like the Palm Pilot ubiquitous. But he also has a lifelong passion for the mysteries of the brain, and he's convinced that artificial intelligence theorists are misguided in focusing on the limits of computational power rather than on the nature of human thought. He "pops the hood" of the neocortex and carefully articulates a theory of consciousness and intelligence that offers radical options for future researchers. "[T]he ability to make predictions about the future... is the crux of intelligence," he argues. The predictions are based on accumulated memories, and Hawkins suggests that humanoid robotics, the attempt to build robots with humanlike bodies, will create machines that are more expensive and impractical than machines reproducing genuinely human-level processes such as complex-pattern analysis, which can be applied to speech recognition, weather analysis and smart cars. Hawkins presents his ideas, with help from New York Times science writer Blakeslee, in chatty, easy-to-grasp language that still respects the brain's technical complexity. He 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 of authors like Steven Johnson and Daniel Dennett.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Scientific American
"This book and my life are animated by two passions," writes Hawkins in On Intelligence. Those passions are mobile computing and brains. This curious combination becomes less puzzling when one realizes that Hawkins is a founder not only of two leading mobile computing companies—Palm Computing and Handspring—but also of the Redwood Neuroscience Institute in Menlo Park, Calif., which explores memory and cognition. Hawkins contends that the human brain and intelligence have little in common with today’s computing systems. Therefore, he offers his perspective on artificial intelligence, neural networks, cognition, consciousness and creativity, with the goal of explaining the mind. The book is elegantly written with Blakeslee, a veteran science writer for the New York Times. At its core, the book puts forth Hawkins’s "memory-prediction framework of intelligence"—a model of cognition positing that the main function of the human neocortex, and the basis of intelligence, is to make predictions. The brain constantly compares new sensory information with stored memories and experiences and combines the information to anticipate the future. In essence, as we wander around, we build a reserve of information from which we construct an internal model of the world. But we constantly update that model. When we see a friend wearing a new hat, the brain automatically predicts what that person ought to look like and contrasts that prediction with the new sensory rendering, updating its model. Brain prediction "is so pervasive," Hawkins says, "that what we ‘perceive’... does not come solely from our senses." The continuous interplay of sensory input, memory, prediction and feedback—which occurs instantly through parallel processing in the neocortex—ultimately gives rise to consciousness and intelligence. "Correct predictions," Hawkins contends, "result in understanding." Hawkins argues that creativity and imagination emerge from prediction as well. Imagination utilizes a neural mechanism to transform predictions into a form of sensory input—which is why our fantasies have such a strong "feel." Moving on, Hawkins says that true machine intelligence will arise only if it is rooted in the same principles as brain-based intelligence. By the book’s end, Hawkins proffers a "comprehensive theory of how the brain works," of "what intelligence is," and of "how your brain creates it." He acknowledges that many aspects of his theory have been developed by other scientists and that his role is to weave a comprehensive explanation. As such, this book provides some provocative thoughts on how the brain and the mind may actually function.
Richard Lipkin --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
A successful designer of handheld computers, Hawkins here explains (with help from New York Times science writer Blakeslee) his passion for artificial intelligence (AI). He holds that AI research has been on an unpromising path toward developing a program big and fast enough to be pronounced "intelligent." Such a brute-force approach is not how the human brain functions, so by way of proposing an alternative AI strategy, Hawkins explains how our brains work, admitting that his views are speculative. He delves into the anatomy of the neocortex, the thin structure that covers the brain and is the seat of higher-level thought. Hawkins virtually encapsulates for a popular audience the scientific literature on how the neocortex constructs a model of the world. The author becomes quite detailed in his explanations of memory formation yet never digresses from his core precept that intelligence is prediction. His argument is complex but comprehensible, and his curiosity will intrigue anyone interested in the lessons neurobiology may hold for AI. Gilbert
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
"On Intelligence will have a big impact; everyone should read it. In the same way that Erwin Schrödinger's 1943 classic What is Life? made how molecules store genetic information then the big problem for biology, On Intelligence lays out the framework for understanding the brain."--James D. Watson, president, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and Nobel laureate in Physiology"Brilliant and embued with startling clarity. On Intelligence is the most important book in neuroscience, psychology, and artificial intelligence in a generation."--Malcolm Young, neurobiologist and provost, University of
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.
Download Description
From the inventor of the PalmPilot comes a new and compelling theory of intelligence, brain function, and the future of intelligent machines.
About the Author
Jeff Hawkins is one of the most successful and highly regarded computer architects and entrepreneurs in
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
From On Intelligence:Let me show why computing is not intelligence. Consider the task of catching a ball. Someone throws a ball to you, you see it traveling towards you, and in less than a second you snatch it out of the air. This doesn't seem too difficult-until you try to program a robot arm to do the same. As many a graduate student has found out the hard way, it seems nearly impossible. When engineers or computer scientists try to solve this problem, they first try to calculate the flight of the ball to determine where it will be when it reaches the arm. This calculation requires solving a set of equations of the type you learn in high school physics. Next, all the joints of a robotic arm have to be adjusted in concert to move the hand into the proper position. This whole operation has to be repeated multiple times, for as the ball approaches, the robot gets better information about its location and trajectory. If the robot waits to start moving until it knows exactly where the ball will land it will be too late to catch it. A computer requires millions of steps to solve the numerous mathematical equations to catch the ball. And although it's imaginable that a computer might be programmed to successfully solve this problem, the brain solves it in a different, faster, more intelligent way.
Excerpted from On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins. Copyright © 2004. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
From On Intelligence:
Let me show why computing is not intelligence. Consider the task of catching a ball. Someone throws a ball to you, you see it traveling towards you, and in less than a second you snatch it out of the air. This doesn't seem too difficult-until you try to program a robot arm to do the same. As many a graduate student has found out the hard way, it seems nearly impossible. When engineers or computer scientists try to solve this problem, they first try to calculate the flight of the ball to determine where it will be when it reaches the arm. This calculation requires solving a set of equations of the type you learn in high school physics. Next, all the joints of a robotic arm have to be adjusted in concert to move the hand into the proper position. This whole operation has to be repeated multiple times, for as the ball approaches, the robot gets better information about its location and trajectory. If the robot waits to start moving until it knows exactly where the ball will land it will be too late to catch it. A computer requires millions of steps to solve the numerous mathematical equations to catch the ball. And although it's imaginable that a computer might be programmed to successfully solve this problem, the brain solves it in a different, faster, more intelligent way.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
2004 On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins, Sandra Blakeslee (With)
Synopsis
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.
Publishers Weekly
Hawkins designed the technical innovations that make handheld computers like the Palm Pilot ubiquitous. But he also has a lifelong passion for the mysteries of the brain, and he's convinced that artificial intelligence theorists are misguided in focusing on the limits of computational power rather than on the nature of human thought. He "pops the hood" of the neocortex and carefully articulates a theory of consciousness and intelligence that offers radical options for future researchers. "[T]he ability to make predictions about the future... is the crux of intelligence," he argues. The predictions are based on accumulated memories, and Hawkins suggests that humanoid robotics, the attempt to build robots with humanlike bodies, will create machines that are more expensive and impractical than machines reproducing genuinely human-level processes such as complex-pattern analysis, which can be applied to speech recognition, weather analysis and smart cars. Hawkins presents his ideas, with help from New York Times science writer Blakeslee, in chatty, easy-to-grasp language that still respects the brain's technical complexity. He 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 of authors like Steven Johnson and Daniel Dennett. Agent, Jim Levine. (Oct. 3) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
More Reviews and Recommendations
From Barnes & Noble
Jeff Hawkins invented the PalmPilot, but we think that his real claim to fame is that he has written a completely accessible book on intelligence. One would imagine that the father of the fastest-selling and most ubiquitous computing device ever would be eager to tout the capabilities of "smart machines." On the contrary, Hawkins insists that computers designed to replicate human behavior are doomed to fail. To explain why, he develops an intriguing theory of how the human brain relies on memory, pattern, and prediction. "We live," he writes, "by our expectations, and someday our machines will, too." A breakthrough book for the common reader.
From the Publisher
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.
Publishers Weekly
Hawkins designed the technical innovations that make handheld computers like the Palm Pilot ubiquitous. But he also has a lifelong passion for the mysteries of the brain, and he's convinced that artificial intelligence theorists are misguided in focusing on the limits of computational power rather than on the nature of human thought. He "pops the hood" of the neocortex and carefully articulates a theory of consciousness and intelligence that offers radical options for future researchers. "[T]he ability to make predictions about the future... is the crux of intelligence," he argues. The predictions are based on accumulated memories, and Hawkins suggests that humanoid robotics, the attempt to build robots with humanlike bodies, will create machines that are more expensive and impractical than machines reproducing genuinely human-level processes such as complex-pattern analysis, which can be applied to speech recognition, weather analysis and smart cars. Hawkins presents his ideas, with help from New York Times science writer Blakeslee, in chatty, easy-to-grasp language that still respects the brain's technical complexity. He 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 of authors like Steven Johnson and Daniel Dennett. Agent, Jim Levine. (Oct. 3) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
What does the inventor of the PalmPilot have to say about the brain? First and foremost, it's nothing like a computer. With a national author tour. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Hawkins, the PalmPilot's inventor, is keen to build truly intelligent machines based on his ideas of how the brain really works. The brain is no computer, this guru of handheld devices makes clear. The AI folks have got it wrong, even with their neural networks and feedback devices. The brain is not a super-fast PC computing all the moves so as to beat you at chess. It's slow, but oh-so-clever. It can fill in the quote when you supply it with a few words, read your crummy handwriting, hum the tune given a couple of notes. All this is possible, Hawkins says, because of the hierarchical structure of the neocortex covering the brain. The cortex is composed of six layers of cells that connect up and down in columns, sideways to cells in other columns, and also connect to other parts of the brain. Incoming signals, say from the eye, send a constantly changing barrage of signals to cells in the visual cortex that, through a succession of relays up and down, get transformed into invariant patterns (a face, for example). Memory, in Hawkins's theory, is a neocortical function based on extracting invariant features of spatial (or temporal) sequences of patterns and employing a process of "autoassociation" in which pattern one invokes an associated pattern two, etc. Hawkins provides many a homely example to comfort the reader traversing the neuroanatomical details, culminating in what he calls the memory-prediction concept of intelligence, in which we use memory to make analogies that allow us to anticipate what happens next, even to devise creative moves. The strength here lies in the solid work of neuroscientists under-girding Hawkins's ideas. Its weakness is his failure to consider the influenceof the brain's emotional/motivational circuitry on learning and memory. Ever the optimist, Hawkins considers building intelligent machines eminently doable. Given his track record, maybe he'll succeed. If not, the exercise may provide further insight into how the brain really, really works. Author tour. Agent: Jim Levine/James Levine Communications
Biography
Jeff Hawkins is one of the most successful and highly regarded computer architects and entrepreneurs in
Sandra Blakeslee has been writing about science and medicine for The New York Times for more than thirty years and is the co-author of Phantoms in the Brain by V. S. Ramachandran and of Judith Wallerstein's bestselling books on psychology and marriage. She lives in
《創智慧》，遠流出版公司，2006.05
內容大要
電腦業響叮噹的人物霍金斯發明設計了PalmPilot、Treo智慧型手機與其他許多掌上型電子設備，重新定義人與電腦之間的關係。如今他藉由這本討論人類智慧本質的精彩書籍，準備一石二鳥，同時發動神經科學及電腦科學的革命。
智慧究竟是什麼？二十多年來人工智慧和神經網路等想要模擬人類智慧的嘗試失敗，正是因為他們沒有先了解什麼是智慧。霍金斯提出一個強有力的理論，解釋人類大腦是怎樣運作以及為什麼他認為電腦沒有智慧，深入探討如何建構出真正的智慧機器。
人 腦不像電腦將每一個接受到的輸入訊號以一個輸出訊號來對應，大腦是個記憶系統，儲存了無數的經驗來反映出外在世界的真實結構，記住事件的序列以及它們的關 係，並根據這些記憶作出預測。這個記憶─預測系統就是智慧的根本，也是知覺、創造力甚至意識的根本。透過這些大腦知識歸納出大腦運作的算則，將使我們可以 用矽晶片建構在許多地方超越人類能力的智慧機器。
本書開啟了科技時代的無限可能，是神經科學、心理學領域的石破天驚之作，更是有志於研發智慧機器的人不可不看的傑作。
2005年《連線》雜誌激賞獎（Wired Rave Award）年度最佳書籍
──中央研究院資訊科學研究所 張復博士
這是非常有啟發性的一本書。霍金斯企圖從腦部架構來理解人腦的運作，而不是從一些膚淺、誤導性的類比來揣摩人們所自以為瞭解的「心靈」與「智慧」。
─詹姆斯．華生（James D. Watson），一九六二年諾貝爾生醫獎得主，冷泉港國家實驗室主任
《創智慧》會有很大的影響力，每一個人都應該讀它。正如同一九四三年薛丁格（Erwin Schr鐰inger）的經典《什麼是生命？》（What is Life?）指出當年生物學上最大問題：分子如何儲存遺傳訊息；《創智慧》提出了瞭解大腦的架構。
─邁克．梅僧尼克（Mike Merzenich），加州大學舊金山校區神經科學教授
這是一本劃時代的重要書籍，《創智慧》是第一本清楚指出人類大腦功能為何的書，我們期待已久了。本書充滿了智慧、頓悟和知識，文字流暢易讀，是美國人寫的一本大腦基本原則的書。
─艾瑞克．肯戴爾（Eric R. Kandel），二○○○年諾貝爾生醫獎得主，哥倫比亞大學教授，豪沃休斯醫學院資深主持人
傑夫．霍金斯寫了一本有原創性、激發思考的好書，在珊卓．布萊克斯利的幫忙下，這本書出奇的易讀，它指出一個大腦皮質如何處理知覺、認知、動作和智慧等功能的新理論。霍金斯的理論跟人家不一樣，很獨特的地方在原創性上，他將大腦皮質和結構結合起來看，提出他認為大腦真正怎麼運作的全新看法，跟以往以電腦為主 的人工智慧看法完全不同。因此，這本書是每一個對大腦有興趣的人的必讀書，本書的許多章節，尤其是有關智慧、創造力，和晶片心智的部分非常有原創性，它將 是大學部學生必讀的材料。
─梅爾康．楊（Malcolm Young），英國新堡大學生物系教授兼教務長
精彩又清晰，這是神經科學、心理學和人工智慧領域三十年來最重要的一本書。
─約翰．杜爾（John Doerr），考菲爾德及拜爾斯（Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers）創投公司合夥人
讀這本書，把其他書都燒掉，這本書有原創性、啟發性及思考性，它是世界上最前衛的思想家的作品，傑夫．霍金斯會改變全世界人對智慧的看法，及智慧機器的前途。
─《費城詢問報》（Philadelphia Inquirer）
這號人物創造了PalmPilot個人數位助理和Treo智慧型手機，因著他的奇想巧思，悟出了要將他已浸淫多年的神經科學與電腦科學這兩者相結合，以展現出引人入勝的新方向。
─霖．耶瑞斯（Lynn Yarris），《聖荷西水星報》（San Jose Mercury News）
我曾讀過數十本有關人類大腦及其如何運作的書籍，《創智慧》絕對是遙遙領先、獨擅勝場的。
─《自然》（Nature）期刊
或許能將釐清大腦如何運作及提供人工智慧系統一個新的根底基礎兩者，畢其工於一書。
─《財星》（Fortune）雜誌
如果霍金斯的立論是對的，他的著作將會牽動實務上的關聯，影響遠超過任何截至目前為止他所有的發明。
─《商業周刊》（BusinessWeek）
針對基於一個簡單、俐落前提的理論所做的聲明：智慧是根植在大腦存取智慧的能力，而非在處理新資料的能力。
─《科學人心智》（Scientific American Mind）
對於大腦與心智實際可能的工作方式所提出教人意湧氣騰的想法。
─《出版家周刊》（Publishers Weekly）
掀起新皮質的蓋頭並慎重的娓娓細訴著意識與智慧的理論，替未來的研究者提供了打破舊遊戲規則的選項……他那令人著迷的推測勢必贏得如作家史提夫．姜生（Steven Johnson）和丹尼爾．丹尼特（Daniel Dennett）的青睞。
─《掌中運算》（Handheld Computing）
這是一本每一個有興趣了解我們如何思考的人必讀的佳作。
─《個人電腦》（PC Magazine）雜誌
它的影響力是在為研究指出了新的方向，並且替神經科學另闢蹊徑。
─《戴納腦科學論壇》（Dana Forum on Brain Science）
這 真是令人耳目一新又眼界大開，霍金斯如此精熟於大腦的結構與功能之神經科學背景，以至於能夠提出一個令人振奮、強有力又意味深長的理論，以探討新皮質如何 工作，甚至還詳盡到具體連結的細節……。這位滿懷著狂熱與新構想就投身其中的局外人開了個先例……彰顯了如何能夠掃除塵封窒礙，並構思出一個新穎又重要的 概念基礎以了解大腦。
─華特．摩斯堡（Walter S. Mossberg），《華爾街日報》（Wall Street Journal）專欄作家
霍金斯的《創智慧》是本重要的著作。它鋪陳了一個張力十足又一以貫之的新理論來看大腦如何工作，某種程度而言，就連非相關領域的門外漢都能了解無礙，而它所預測到一個令人興奮的科技未來則充滿了真正的智慧型機器，遠遠超越了今天的電腦和相形見絀的機器人。
─摩芮甘卡．蘇爾（Mriganka Sur），麻省理工學院腦與認知科學系主任
一個值得注意的構想綜合物，我預測它將會對神經科學和神經科學家們造成重大的衝擊。
─派屈克．麥克高文（Patrick McGovern），麻省理工學院麥克高文大腦研究院院長，國際數據集團（International Data Group, IDG）創辦人暨主席
一個才智縱橫的先趨所呈現關於大腦如何運作的獨創革新假設。我相信《創智慧》將會對神經科學有極大的衝擊，並為改進人類溝通、相互了解與教育打下基礎。
─《書單》（Booklist）半月刊
霍 金斯幾乎為非學術的讀者總結了有關新皮質如何建構一個世界模式的科學文獻。這位作者採用詳盡的解釋來說明記憶的形成，但卻絲毫沒有偏離他的核心準則：智慧乃是預測。他的論證雖然複雜但卻合情中理易懂，而他的好奇心會吸引任何對於想將神經生物學應用到人工智慧上的人感興趣。
─《克科斯評論》（Kirkus Reviews）
PalmPilot的發明者霍金斯，熱中於根據他對大腦實際工作方式的構想來建造真正的智慧機器。這位掌上型裝置的大師很清楚地論證出大腦不是電腦……身為天字第一號樂觀者，霍金斯認為建造智慧機器明擺著是可行的。按照他過去的成就來看，他也許真會成功。
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