On Intelligence

I've been reading this book called "On Intelligence" by Jeff Hawkins. He was the founder of Palm and has been a software & hardware designer for many years, but has also been interested in human and machine intelligence. He took a number of classes in bioscience and was most interested in how the brain actually works. The mistake that Artificial Intelligence (AI) experts made, he argues, is they paid no attention to the inner workings of the brain, or developed a reasonable theory of what intelligence actually is, and instead focused upon emulating human behavior.

Hawkins believes that the brain doesn't work like a computer. Computers are designed to be much faster and possess greater computational power. The AI'ers believe that if we create faster and more powerful computers, we will eventually create a real intelligent computer. Hawkins believes that's the wrong approach. He encourages the reader to look at how the brain works: first, it stores memories, then it retrieves them, and finally makes predictions based upon those memories. This is the crux of intelligence. Pattern recognition doesn't derive from computing pathways, but from reconciling what our senses are capturing with these retrieved memories.

The core component of the human brain is the neo-cortex. That's where most of the action is! It has 6 layers, from L1 to L6. Hawkins demonstrates how different regions of the cortex are hierarchically related. He further illustrates how information is hierarchically stored to mirror the hierarchy of reality! The examples he gives are great, from musical compositions to roadways. What it boils down to is that objects have subobjects which themselves have subcomponents, or a process has subprocesses and so forth. Data merges into higher levels of the hierarchy, percolating all the way to the top. With the example of music, he says "Notes are combined to form intervals. Intervals are combined to form melodic phrases. Phrases are combined to form melodies or songs. Songs are combined into albums."

The organization of information and how it's mentally stored reflects the organization of reality. We don't hear a song in one instant, nor capture all the complexity of an event in one screen shot. Internally in the brain, a song is stored hierarchically to capture the nested structure of reality; the highest part is a pointer to the entire song, the next highest part might store the memories of the phrases, then a lower part will store the intervals, and the lowest man on the totem pole remembers the notes. With an image, complete snapshots are not stored one place in memory. Instead, line segments are stored in lower hierarchical parts of the visial cortex, then shapes composed of these line segments are stored in a higher region, shapes blend into recognizable objects in yet a higher region, and finally what Hawkins calls "large scale relationships" reflecting the entire picture occur on top. Based upon what I've been reading, I interpret the storage of memories as an artistic process, not as a storage of data in a computer.

And how do we recognize patterns in reality? Well, memories reflect the relationships of the compositional components. We remember the sequence of notes in a song. So when we hear a few notes, even if they are in a different key, we remember the relationship of the notes. It's the same with a picture of a face. The face might have a different color, or perhaps part of the face is hidden, but the brain remembers the relationships of the facial components and can make auto-associations based upon what it can view (i.e. it doesn't have to see the entire picture to recognize its contents).

One of the most powerful points in the book is his use of Vernon Mountcastle's idea of a unified cortex algorithm. Mountcastle argued that different parts of the cortex (visual, aural, etc.) essentially have the same operating principles. It's the same signal processing and pattern recognition in all cortical regions. We process what we see, hear, and feel (also smell?!) using the same algorithm. What distinguishes each region are the connections to other parts of the brain and body, relationships to motor activities and responses, and so forth.

I've read about 2/3rds of the book and look forward to the end, which I'm sure will include some discussion about how real machine intelligence could occur with a proper implementation of the "memory/prediction" cortical model. Based upon what I've read, I would highly recommend this book.

Anyone read this or books touching on similar subject matter? Thoughts?

Northwestern Oahu mountains 

Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Honolulu 

Diamond Head, Honolulu 

Waterfall in Waimea Canyon, Kauai. 

Palm trees near Kalapaki Beach 

Hawaiian musicians and Hula dancer, Marriott Beach Club, Lihue Kauai 

Rachel 

View of Marriott Beach Club pool (the largest in Hawaii) and Kalapaki Beach. 

Tarot fields, Hanalei Nature Wildlife Refuge, Northern shore of Kauai 

Hanalei, Kauai 

Diana and Rachel at the Marriott Beach Club, Lihue, Kauai 

Posing in front of Kalapaki Beach, Lihue Kauai 

North Shore of Oahu

On June 13th, Tues, we took a ride around the island. We rode up H2 (nothing too exciting except some real nice views of the Northwestern Oahu mountains). Then we hooked up on 99 and stopped at the Dole Plantation. Lots of tourists there. We didn't take a tour of the grounds, but walked around and took some pictures. There is supposed to be this giant maze, one of the largest in the world, comprised of over 11,000 Hawaiian plants. It just was too hot to take any tours especially with a somewhat restless one year old.

We continued up 99 and detoured to see the historic town of Waialua, but I ended up driving out to Kaena Point, the most western point on Oahu. This is where the mountains meet the ocean/beach. It's beautiful there. Some of the beaches are near-pristine white. One beach is a great place to watch the para-sailers.

We didn't see historic Waialua, but did see historic Haleiwa. This town has a lot of historic buildings, quaint shops and restaurants. It's also where the surfers hang out (there's even this Surfer museum for G-d's sake!). We ate at a Mexican restaurant, Cholos. The food was OK, but the best part of it was all of the wall hangings incl Mexican art, crosses, other paraphenalia.

After lunch, we took 83 along the northern coast. First, we stopped at Waimea Bay, but it was too crowded. Then we drove past Sunset Beach, stopped at some beach with a scenic coastal view. Drove by Turtle Bay, etc.

Some nice views of the Northern mountains from Kahuku. We briefly stopped to see the Mormon Temple in Laie, and then enjoyed the scenic views from Laie Beach. Stopped in a couple of quaint, small towns like Hauula and Punaluu. It's all very nice. But the most scenic and romantic point has to be Kahana Bay. We actually were able to stop there, and take some great photos and DVD footage. This green giant, jagged-edged mountain overlooks the bay. What a great place to be!

But no sooner than the blink of an eye, and yet another scenic view emerges in Kaaawa. The "triple a" town gives us a peek at yet another jagged-edged peak. Then onto Kualoa where one is greeted by the picturesque Chinaman's Hat! (in Kaneohe Bay).

But that's not all! Stopped in Kahaluu to view the rest of the majestic mountains of Oahu.

Drove back on H3, right through the thick of the northern mountains! What else is there to say.

When we returned to Honolulu, Diana wanted to see Temple Emanuel, the Jewish Reform temple. It's up on the Pali Highway (91). It was late at night, so we didn't get to go inside. But it's a very nice building in a scenic location.

Once we returned to the Outrigger Reef, we had dinner at the Ocean House restaurant. A fitting ending to our trip with a scrumptious meal overlooking the ocean waters, with a nice tropical breeze passing by.

Diana, Rachel, and myself, bid you Aloha from Hawaii. We had a very nice time together on our first family trip.

Ride around Oahu

We rented a car and had a nice ride around Oahu. I'll give a more detailed description of our trip when we return (it's getting late and I have to pack for the return flight tomorrow). Suffice it to say that the coastal and mountainous scenery was incredible. I just love their northern shore.

Last couple days in Kauai

Well I finally was able to go kayaking for a couple hours, the next to the last day in Kauai! It was in the bay area where we were staying.

Our last day on the island was Fri 6/10/06. We relaxed at the Marriott Beach Club in Lihue where we were staying. It's situated in this secluded bay that reminded us of the resort we stayed at in St. Lucia on our honeymoon. We hung out at the beach which was nice, but it was very hot. Then we swam in the pool which is the largest area pool in Hawaii. It's tremendous; there are 5 large gazebos covering the 5 jacuzzis!

We then walked around the grounds for a bit. They have beautiful gardens in the open air interior area, interspersed with pavillions covering large Japanese art work and statues. There are some posh shopping stores as well. In the morning, they feed the Koi located in the interior Japanese ponds. There are Ne-Ne and other geese and ducks lounging nearby!

At night, we attended the Luau at the Smith Tropical Paradise in Wailua. We didn't attend the dinner part of it, but saw the performance in the ampitheatre. It was a nice show, with dancers representing Hawaii, Tahiti, New Zealand (Maori), Philippines, Japan and China. There was also a Samoan fire dancer.

All in all a nice stay on the Garden Isle. We hope to return soon.

Waimea Canyon et al

We finally made it to Waimea Canyon on Wednesday. Took the nice drive along the southern coast. Stopped at the historic town of Hanapepe. It has some nice art galleries, an old theatre, and this "shaking bridge" that goes across the river. We walked on this narrow suspension bridge which rocks back and forth as you walk across it. I noticed that the town, while it retains some of its charm, looks pretty desolate. Someone later said this was due to hurricane Iniki in 1993.

Then we stopped in Waimea for lunch. It too is a historic town, known for its sugar and rice plantations, and the spot where Captain Cook first landed in Hawaii.

Then, we took 552 up to the Waimea Canyon. We stopped at a couple of spots along the way. Rachel has generally been very well behaved on this trip, but this long windy drive was a little too much for her; she let us know about her discomfort! Well, be that as it may, we stopped at the scenic lookout point for the incredible views of the canyon. The green vegetation (a type of fern) intermingled with the red soil and rock paints an amazing picture that is the envy of every good artist!

We drove the next few miles to Kokee State Park, but unfortunately, it was getting foggy and even started raining. Needless to say, we didn't make it out to the Kalalau Lookout, with its majestic peak at a section of the Napali Coast.

Well, we made it back to Wailua in time for a children's Hula show.

Greetings from Kauai

Hello from Kauai. Diana, Rachel, and myself are here in the beautiful Garden Isle. The weather has been great, and it's been very relaxing.

We took a nice ride along the northern shore a couple days ago. We stopped at Kilauea Point to see the Lighthouse, but it was closed. Also went to Princeville and on to Hanalei. Some nice picturesque shots along the coast.

Still trying to marshal the troops out to Waimea Canyon. Maybe tomorrow.

Activities galore here at the Marriott (Lei making for Rachel earlier today).