The following is a conversation with Jeff Hawkins, a neuroscientist seeking to understand

the structure, function, and origin of intelligence in the human brain. He previously wrote the

seminal book on the subject titled On Intelligence, and recently a new book called A Thousand Brains,

which presents a new theory of intelligence that Richard Dawkins, for example, has been

raving about, calling the book, quote, brilliant, and exhilarating. I can't read those two words

and not think of him saying it in his British accent. Quick mention of our sponsors,

Codecademy, Biooptimizers, ExpressVPN, A Sleep, and Blinkist. Check them out in the description

to support this podcast. As a side note, let me say that one small but powerful idea that Jeff

Hawkins mentions in his new book is that if human civilization were to destroy itself,

all of knowledge, all our creations will go with us. He proposes that we should think about how

to save that knowledge in a way that long outlives us, whether that's on earth,

in orbit around earth, or in deep space, and then to send messages that advertise this backup of

human knowledge to other intelligent alien civilizations. The main message of this advertisement

is not that we are here, but that we were once here. This little difference somehow was deeply

humbling to me, that we may with some non-zero likelihood destroy ourselves and that an alien

civilization, thousands or millions of years from now may come across this knowledge store,

and they would only with some low probability even notice it not to mention be able to interpret it.

And the deeper question here for me is what information in all of human knowledge is even essential?

Does Wikipedia capture it or not at all? This thought experiment forces me to wonder what are the

things we've accomplished and are hoping to still accomplish that will outlive us? Is it things

like complex buildings, bridges, cars, rockets? Is it ideas like science, physics, and mathematics?

Is it music, an art? Is it computers, computational systems, or even artificial intelligence systems?

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