We know that the brain combines sensory inputs from all parts of the body into a single perception, but how does it go about achieving this? The common belief is that brains do some kind of mathematical operations, but we can't be sure of the nature of these mathematical operations. We also believe that the brain is organized according to a hierarchy, with different parts all working cooperatively to make a single model of the world. But we cannot explain how this cooperation takes place. Neuroscientist and computer engineer Jeff Hawkins argues that it is very difficult to answer questions about the brain because our basic knowledge of how the brain works is wrong. In Thousand Brains: A New Theory of the Brain, Hawkins takes a radically new approach to the brain, and this approach has major implications. Hawkins' idea, which he calls the thousand-brain theory of intelligence, says that the brain is organized into thousands and thousands of individual computing units, called cortical columns. All of these columns process information from the outside world in the same way, and each constructs a complete model of the world. But because each column has different connections to the rest of the body, each has a unique frame of reference. The brain issues all of these patterns by making a vote. Thus, the primary function of the brain is not to construct a single idea, but to manage thousands of individual thoughts every moment.
Pages: 303
