Quotes from Jeff Hawkins

The AI strategy is implausible.

Discovery Number One: The Neocortex Learns a Predictive Model of the World

This discovery led to an important question. How does the brain make predictions? One potential answer is that the brain has two types of neurons: neurons that fire when the brain is actually seeing something, and neurons that fire when the brain is predicting it will see something. To avoid hallucinating, the brain needs to keep its predictions separate from reality. Using two sets of neurons does this nicely. However, there are two problems with this idea.

Cortical grid cells in what columns attach reference frames to objects. Cortical grid cells in where columns attach reference frames to your body.

We are not consciously aware of most of the predictions made by the brain unless an error occurs. Trying to understand how the neurons in the neocortex make predictions led to the second discovery.

We have proposed that complete objects, not features, are passed between hierarchical levels. Instead of the neocortex using hierarchy to assemble features into a recognized object, the neocortex uses hierarchy to assemble objects into more complex objects.

Your brain has made a model of the world and is constantly checking that model against reality.

Science is itself an exercise in prediction.

After all, behavior is the ultimate determiner of survival.

the cortex uses the same computational tool to accomplish everything it does.

To predict the next note, you can't just look at the previous note or the previous five notes. The correct prediction may rely on notes that occurred a long time ago.

Our reality is similar to the brain-in-a-vat hypothesis; we live in a simulated world, but it is not in a computer—it is in our head.

If the universe came into and out of existence and there were no brains to know it, did the universe really exist? Who would know?

Mountcastle proposed that the reason the regions look similar is that they are all doing the same thing. What makes them different is not their intrinsic function but what they are connected to.

Cartesian theatre (Dan Dennett's term)

So, what was Mountcastle's proposal for the location of the cortical algorithm? He said that the fundamental unit of the neocortex, the unit of intelligence, was a "cortical column.

Remember, the brain is in a dark quiet box with no knowledge of anything other than the time-flowing patterns on its input fibers.

Shakespeare's metaphors are the paragon of creativity. "Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs." "Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy." "There's daggers in men's smiles.

For me, the sense of awareness—the sense of presence, the feeling that I am an acting agent in the world—is the core of what it means to be conscious. It is easily explained by the activity of neurons, and I see no mystery in it.

We have learned a tremendous amount of knowledge and facts about the brain, but we have little understanding of how the whole thing works.

To this day I still hear people claim that computers should adapt to users. This isn't always true. Our brains prefer systems that are consistent and predictable, and we like learning new skills.

Truly random thoughts don't exist.

the Thousand Brains Theory: knowledge of any particular item is distributed among thousands of complementary models.

The difficult part of knowledge is not stating a fact, but representing that fact in a useful way.