#58: Jeff Hawkins on Tackling the Big Problems

Jeff Hawkins is one of my favorite neuroscientists ever. He does the kind of big, ambitious projects I love to see people going after. The driving question of his research is no less than "How does the neocortex work?" He wants to solve intelligence, and he wants to do it the way the brain does. Jeff is an innovative in mobile computing and is widely known as the founder of Palm and the creator of the Palm Pilot. He saw the big picture in that space before anyone else did, and the smart money says that the same goes for his theory of the brain. I read Jeff's 2004 book, "On Intelligence," and it made a big impact on me. His latest book, "A Thousand Brains: A new theory of intelligence" is out now, and details his latest progress on figuring out how the brain really works. In this conversation, we talk about Jeff's early experience, particularly balancing his success in business with his love for neuroscience, as well as the origin of the ideas he lays out in A Thousand Brains. Our conversation gets a bit heated toward the end. But I think it's a healthy difference of opinion, as I am a great admirer of Jeff and his team's work.

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