Buy new:
-
Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com
Save with Used - Very Good
-
Ships from: World of Books (previously glenthebookseller) Sold by: World of Books (previously glenthebookseller)
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Follow the authors
OK
On Intelligence Paperback – August 1, 2005
Purchase options and add-ons
From the inventor of the PalmPilot comes a new and compelling theory of intelligence, brain function, and the future of intelligent machines
Jeff Hawkins, the man who created the PalmPilot, Treo smart phone, and other handheld devices, has reshaped our relationship to computers. Now he stands ready to revolutionize both neuroscience and computing in one stroke, with a new understanding of intelligence itself.
Hawkins develops a powerful theory of how the human brain works, explaining why computers are not intelligent and how, based on this new theory, we can finally build intelligent machines.
The brain is not a computer, but a memory system that stores experiences in a way that reflects the true structure of the world, remembering sequences of events and their nested relationships and making predictions based on those memories. It is this memory-prediction system that forms the basis of intelligence, perception, creativity, and even consciousness.
In an engaging style that will captivate audiences from the merely curious to the professional scientist, Hawkins shows how a clear understanding of how the brain works will make it possible for us to build intelligent machines, in silicon, that will exceed our human ability in surprising ways.
Written with acclaimed science writer Sandra Blakeslee, On Intelligence promises to completely transfigure the possibilities of the technology age. It is a landmark book in its scope and clarity.
- Print length272 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateAugust 1, 2005
- Dimensions5.3 x 0.68 x 8.15 inches
- ISBN-100805078533
- ISBN-13978-0805078534
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
What do customers buy after viewing this item?
Customers also bought or read
- The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity
PaperbackDelivery Wed, Dec 24 - Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI#1 Best SellerDiscrete Mathematics
HardcoverDelivery Tuesday - A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains
HardcoverDelivery Tuesday - Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google, Facebook, and the World
PaperbackDelivery Tuesday - Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies#1 Best SellerArtificial Intelligence
PaperbackDelivery Tuesday - Theoretical Neuroscience: Computational And Mathematical Modeling of Neural Systems (Computational Neuroscience)
PaperbackFREE delivery Tuesday - Active Inference: The Free Energy Principle in Mind, Brain, and Behavior
PaperbackFREE delivery Tuesday - Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI#1 Best SellerInternational Economics
HardcoverDelivery Tuesday - The Feeling Of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness
PaperbackDelivery Tuesday
Editorial Reviews
Review
“On Intelligence will have a big impact; everyone should read it. In the same way that Erwin Schrödinger's 1943 classic What is Life? made how molecules store genetic information then the big problem for biology, On Intelligence lays out the framework for understanding the brain.” ―James D. Watson, president, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and Nobel laureate in Physiology
“Brilliant and embued with startling clarity. On Intelligence is the most important book in neuroscience, psychology, and artificial intelligence in a generation.” ―Malcolm Young, neurobiologist and provost, University of Newcastle
“Read this book. Burn all the others. It is original, inventive, and thoughtful, from one of the world's foremost thinkers. Jeff Hawkins will change the way the world thinks about intelligence and the prospect of intelligent machines.” ―John Doerr, partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
About the Author
Jeff Hawkins, co-author of On Intelligence, is one of the most successful and highly regarded computer architects and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. He founded Palm Computing and Handspring, and created the Redwood Neuroscience Institute to promote research on memory and cognition. Also a member of the scientific board of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, he lives in northern California.
Sandra Blakeslee has been writing about science and medicine for The New York Times for more than thirty years and is the co-author of Phantoms in the Brain by V. S. Ramachandran and of Judith Wallerstein's bestselling books on psychology and marriage. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
On Intelligence
By Jeff Hawkins, Sandra BlakesleeSt. Martin's Press
Copyright ©2005 Jeff HawkinsAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8050-7853-4
Excerpt
From On Intelligence:Let me show why computing is not intelligence. Consider the task of catching a ball. Someone throws a ball to you, you see it traveling towards you, and in less than a second you snatch it out of the air. This doesn't seem too difficult-until you try to program a robot arm to do the same. As many a graduate student has found out the hard way, it seems nearly impossible. When engineers or computer scientists try to solve this problem, they first try to calculate the flight of the ball to determine where it will be when it reaches the arm. This calculation requires solving a set of equations of the type you learn in high school physics. Next, all the joints of a robotic arm have to be adjusted in concert to move the hand into the proper position. This whole operation has to be repeated multiple times, for as the ball approaches, the robot gets better information about its location and trajectory. If the robot waits to start moving until it knows exactly where the ball will land it will be too late to catch it. A computer requires millions of steps to solve the numerous mathematical equations to catch the ball. And although it's imaginable that a computer might be programmed to successfully solve this problem, the brain solves it in a different, faster, more intelligent way.
(Continues...)Excerpted from On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins. Copyright © 2005 by Jeff Hawkins. Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Product details
- Publisher : St. Martin's Griffin
- Publication date : August 1, 2005
- Edition : Reprint
- Language : English
- Print length : 272 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0805078533
- ISBN-13 : 978-0805078534
- Item Weight : 8.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.3 x 0.68 x 8.15 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #217,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #203 in Medical Cognitive Psychology
- #327 in Cognitive Psychology (Books)
- #338 in Artificial Intelligence & Semantics
About the authors

Sandra (aka Sandy) Blakeslee. I am a science writer with endless curiosity and interests but have spent the past 35 years or so writing about the brain, mostly for the New York Times where I started my career back in the dark ages (late 60s.) I've been writing books for the past few years (The Body Has a Mind of It's Own, On intelligence, Sleights of Mind, Dirt Is Good and more.) As for back story -- I graduated from Berkeley in 1965 (Free Speech Movement major), went to Peace Corps in Borneo, joined the NYT in 1968 as a staff writer, then took off on my own, raised a family, lived in many parts of the world, now live in Santa Fe NM and even have grandchildren. To quote Churchill, so much to do....

Jeff Hawkins is a well-known scientist and entrepreneur, considered one of the most successful and highly regarded computer architects in Silicon Valley. He is widely known for founding Palm Computing and Handspring Inc. and for being the architect of many successful handheld computers. He is often credited with starting the entire handheld computing industry.
Despite his successes as a technology entrepreneur, Hawkins’ primary passion and occupation has been neuroscience. From 2002 to 2005, Hawkins directed the Redwood Neuroscience Institute, now located at U.C. Berkeley. He is currently co-founder and chief scientist at Numenta, a research company focused on neocortical theory.
Hawkins has written two books, "On Intelligence" (2004 with Sandra Blakeslee) and "A Thousand Brains: A new theory of intelligence" (2021). Many of his scientific papers have become some of the most downloaded and cited papers in their journals.
Hawkins has given over one hundred invited talks at research universities, scientific institutions, and corporate research laboratories. He has been recognized with numerous personal and industry awards. He is considered a true visionary by many and has a loyal following – spanning scientists, technologists, and business leaders. Jeff was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2003.



























