michielstock's review against another edition

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4.0

A very good and interesting book about the nature of (artificial) intelligence and the workings of brains. The author brings a clear theory, nicely framed from where it came from and what the implications are.

wildukefan's review against another edition

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4.0

This book demands intense focus from the novice of Neocortex studies, however if you stick with Jeff's descriptions you will come out with a profound knowledge and wonder about our extraordinary human brain.

jwynia's review against another edition

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5.0

A while back, I saw an episode of Wired Science on PBS, featuring Jeff Hawkins (he founded Palm Computing) talking about the area of study that's pulled him in repeatedly: neuroscience. His description of the neocortex, including its similarity in size and thickness to a cloth dinner napkin and that thin layer of cells' pretty much *being* the thing that makes us human intrigued me. So, I bought his book.

On Intelligence is the book on this list that took me the longest to actually get through. It's not particularly long or even hard to read. However, every chapter led me to ponder quite a bit. As a result, I tended to read this one in fits and starts over a few months.

The central premise is his theory and the science to back it up focuses on the general algorithm for the neocortex. Oversimplified, every portion of the neocortex just watches for and stores patterns, combining them and replaying them. That goes for sensory input, our own motor control, etc.

Ever since reading this book, I've been seeing more and more in day to day life that fits with this theory. Should his model for how the brain works turn out to be completely right, it will be huge, particularly in the area of computer-based [b:artificial intelligence|27543|Artificial Intelligence A Modern Approach (2nd Edition)|Stuart J. Russell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167881696s/27543.jpg|1362].

I fully expect to continue mulling this one over for months and years to come.

uroybd's review against another edition

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5.0

জেফ্ হকিনসের সাধ ছিল বুদ্ধিমান যন্ত্র বানাবেন। বিহেভেরিয়রিজমের নিরিখে পাওয়া হাল আমলের বুদ্ধিমান যন্ত্র না, সত্যিকারের বুদ্ধিমান যন্ত্র যা তথ্য শুধু ব্যবহার না, বুঝতে সক্ষম। কিন্তু বুদ্ধিমান যন্ত্র বানাতে হলে বুদ্ধি কী তা তো আগে বোঝা দরকার। সেই জন্য তিনি নিউরোসায়েন্সের দ্বারস্থ হয়েছিলেন।

ফলাফল: অন ইনটেলিজেন্স।

মানুষের বুদ্ধির (এবং ভাষার) বিকাশ সম্পর্কিত জনপ্রিয় ন্যারেটিভটি কগনিটিভ রেভলিউশনের ([a:Yuval Noah Harari|395812|Yuval Noah Harari|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1546235045p2/395812.jpg]-র কগনিটিভি রেভলিউশন, সোশ্যাল মুভমেন্ট না।) ওপর দাঁড়ানো। পৃথিবীর প্রাণীজগতের সামগ্রিক বিবর্তনের ল্যান্ডস্কেপে এই ন্যারেটিভটি প্রায় মাটি থেকে মানুষ তৈরীর মতই খাপ ছাড়া। সম্প্রতি বুদ্ধিমত্তা ও ভাষার বিকাশের বিবর্তনীয় ব্যাখ্যাগুলো পরিচিতি পাচ্ছে। [b:The Truth about Language: What It Is and Where It Came From|31226016|The Truth about Language What It Is and Where It Came From|Michael C. Corballis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1486848173l/31226016._SY75_.jpg|51882729] বইতে [a:Michael C. Corballis|42689|Michael C. Corballis|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] এমনই বিবর্তনীয় যুক্তির অবতারণা করেছেন। আর, এই বইতে পেলাম মানুষের মস্তিষ্ক ও বুদ্ধিমত্তার এমন একটি ব্যাখ্যা যা বিবর্তনবাদের সাথে সাংঘর্ষিক না।

বইটি সুপাঠ্য। নিঃসন্দেহে থট প্রোভোকিং। যা যা চিন্তা এবং সংগ্রহ করে কোহেরেন্ট ন্যারেটিভের রূপ দিয়েছেন, তার অধিকাংশই একাডেমিয়ায় ছড়ানো-ছিটানো আছে। আমাদের মত আমজনতার জন্য তার সবটা সহজলভ্য না। এই দিকটা চিন্তা করলে আসলে প্রচণ্ড দরকারি ছিল বইটি।

roskelld's review against another edition

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4.0

First book I've read on the topic. I found the subject matter really interesting, focused on intelligence, while slanted towards how it could be used for A.I.

Jeff comes across as quite an angry person, his strong views bleed into the letters on the page. This might rub people the wrong way and put them off reading it. I got used to it and figured it was just a sign of his passion on the topic.

I understand that some of his views/opinions have been debunked or are looked down on from the community, but taking that in, it's still a book that makes you think and helps understand more than not. I don't believe this will send you completely down a bad road on understanding intelligence.

I think I'm going to follow this up with some other books on the field to help round out my understanding of the topic, and see how things have progressed on the A.I front since this book is now a number of years old.

terminatee's review

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3.0

This book includes many detailed descriptions of the author's hypotheses on how the brain functions, with insufficient diagrams to make it easy to follow.
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