A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence

A Thousand Brains is an interesting mishmash of a book. At first, it discusses the intelligence theory. This says that brain uses large numbers of different models to process information. It takes in various inputs and uses the past learning to build new understanding. This contrasts to the more linear understanding and the use in artificial intelligence. The author stresses that this is just a model that can be used to come to a true understanding with more research.

The book then goes off on science fiction and social policy. There is discussion of extra-terrestrial life, and the challenge of intelligent life meeting up. Intelligent human life capable of interstellar communication has only existed for a mere blip in the lifespan of the earth. What are the odds we could find other life? The author has the optimistic stance that any society that has conquered long distance space travel has probably also conquered the base characteristics that lead to warfare.

The author is optimistic about artificial intelligence. We still have a long way to go before adopting intelligence similar to the human brain. Most artificial intelligence uses simple learning process that must be relearned to be able to carry out new tasks. Computers have beat humans at narrow tasks, but not at overall intelligence. AI would probably need to undergo a significant change to make the leap forward. He sees great potential for robotic intelligence, with minimal risk.

For society, the author is concerned with "fake learning". People often adopt models that are proven to be true. However, he also acknowledges that many models serve their purpose. When people only travel by foot, the flat earth model is perfectly adequate. The subsection of the earth they can travel is for all practical purposes flat. Only once long distance and higher speed travel comes about is a round earth model needed. Even today, most people are fine thinking of the earth as "flat". 

The book compares these models to other knowledge that is "proven" to be bad. This is where things start to get tricky. The link between autism and vaccination is given as an example. People cling to the belief that the vaccines lead to autism in spite of scientific evidence to the contrary. However, just as the scientific community can produce evidence refuting the vaccine/autism connection, the anti-vaxers produce evidence to their side. How can that be? The book claims that they are continuing to advocate "bad" beliefs. But, I'm guessing they would call others following "bad" science. Today science has obtained a level of "religion". The scientific method arbitrates all truth. It has become akin to the pope in the medieval Europe. Science tends to denigrate religion as "outdated" just as Christianity christianized pre-Christian religions as pagan. Have we really advanced? Or are we just seeing a new religion gain prominence?  

Other areas like global warming and birth control and religion are seen as areas of concern. Global warming could be an existential crisis for humanity. The earth could potentially be uninhabitable like Mars is today. Religions can be dangerous when they look forward to an afterlife and the destruction of the world. Hmm. These two actually seem similar. Birth control was advocated as a way for the logical brain to overcome the gene-spreading behavior of the instinctive brain. However, will that really result in massive decrease in population? There still does seem to be a strong desire for reproduction.

The social policy implications distract from the earlier message of the book. It does go more into science fiction (including discussion of the laws of robotics.) That may be interesting. However, that is most likely focussing on problems that will not be at the forefront of the future. When the author was launching Palm, few people could see a purpose of handheld computers. Now it is not unusually for people to carry around multiple computing devices (watches, phones, etc.) that are much more powerful than early Palm Pilots. Similarly, the implications for a future once we further understand the brain and can reproduce it will be much different than anything we can think of today.