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A Thousand Brains

A New Theory of Intelligence

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A Thousand Brains

Written by: Jeff Hawkins, Richard Dawkins - foreword
Narrated by: Jamie Renell, Richard Dawkins
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About this listen

A best-selling author, neuroscientist, and computer engineer unveils a theory of intelligence that will revolutionize our understanding of the brain and the future of AI.

For all of neuroscience's advances, we've made little progress on its biggest question: How do simple cells in the brain create intelligence? Jeff Hawkins and his team discovered that the brain uses map-like structures to build a model of the world - not just one model, but hundreds of thousands of models of everything we know. This discovery allows Hawkins to answer important questions about how we perceive the world, why we have a sense of self, and the origin of high-level thought. A Thousand Brains heralds a revolution in the understanding of intelligence. It is a big-think book, in every sense of the word.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Jeff Hawkins (P)2021 Basic Books
Biological Sciences Computer Science Human Brain Artificial Intelligence Natural Language Processing
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What listeners say about A Thousand Brains

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    4 out of 5 stars

Great book with disappointing end

The whole part where he talk about his expertise is fascinating I learned a lot about the brain but the philosophy end with very questionable points and argument, I wish he spent the last 2 hours giving his opinion on the future of brain health revolution rather than the extinction of humanity

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1 person found this helpful

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A revolution in brain science

Thinking is a kind of movement. moving from one reference frame to the next one. neocortex uses cells similar to grid cells to create reference frames. all thoughts are made this way. the book is fascinating and it might truly be a turning point in our understanding of brain mechanisms.

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1 person found this helpful

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This is a really important book

Read it. It heads in directions you might not immediately expect but are completely intriguing.

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1 person found this helpful

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must read

well-written book and gave numerous reasons about the present and future of the humanity

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1 person found this helpful

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Another wonderful Gates reccomendation

Since 2020 I've been on a audiobook thrill ride and this one kept up the speed. Helping me understand myself and those around me a bit more

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3 people found this helpful

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Ahead of its time

Imagine being one of the first people to learn about how evolution works or about how all life is made up of cells. This books tackles a question of similar magnitude and I believe it mostly succeeds.

The key points from On Intelligence are repeated here which makes this a great standalone book but it can be a bit repetitive if you've read the first book and have kept up with Numenta over the years.

After reading this book you'll start to see evidence for these ideas in your own life.

The knowledge I've gained from this book has helped me optimize strategies for learning new concepts which is the main reason I'm giving it 5 stars. It can be a bit dry in some places and a bit too opinionated in others but not nearly enough to be an issue.





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Really Good for the Brain

Well read, concepts are made simple it not too delved into to keep it that way. The message is conveyed.

Nice insight about how this machine works and that it is still being researched, in newer ways. Being creative.

I hope for a follow up !

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Great read!

I loved everything about the book and the writer. However I disagree with about 5% of the material/ authors point of view in the book. Rest is amazing.

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    3 out of 5 stars

Opens with science, closes with pseudo-philosophy

Opens with a science-based explanation of our human brain (neocortex) works to understand and interact with the world. This is worth reading.

This transitions into philosophy and speculation where the author has a novel perspective to start from, but lacks the rigour to go beyond a “food for thought“ buffet of assorted ideas. I would have liked to see any of these ideas explored and defended further.

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5 people found this helpful

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…What did I just listen to?

If you’re interested even casually in actual neuroscience - skip this one. Pseudointellectual. Author comes off as some rich guy who thinks he’s a neuroscientist and nobody has had the courage to tell him that he isn’t and that he shouldn’t write this vanity project. Doesn’t seem to understand the difference between “theory” and “hypothesis” - or, at best, rambling opinion. Frequently uses some version of “it’s too complicated to go into, so I’ll dumb it down for you” - but rather than actually presenting a complex idea simply you’re left feeling that the author just copped out because he has no idea what he’s taking about. A grand total of one chapter is directly related to the topic of the book, and even that is poorly argued from a scientific perspective. Very little depth here. After that the wheels just totally fall off and it turns into everything and the kitchen sink. Narrator did a good job at least.

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6 people found this helpful