You and Betty and the Nancy's and Bill's and Joes and Jane's will find in the study of science a richer, more rewarding life.

Hey, welcome to Inquiring Minds. I'm Indravis Gantus. This is a podcast that explores the space where science and society collide.

We want to find out what's true, what's left to discover, and why it matters.

We're in the midst of a four-part series on artificial intelligence and the future of humanity.

Last time we spoke to Cade Mets

about the people behind the latest advancements in AI. And we heard the story of Jeff Hinton

and his colleagues, who spent a lot of time in the background convinced that building an

artificial intelligence that was based upon neural networks would prove fruitful.

Eventually they were right, but for many decades, a lot of people just thought it couldn't be done.

This week, we're going to talk to another person who took an unconventional route to be where he is today,

who started out as a computer pioneer, and then ended up as a neuroscientist

developing a new theory of intelligence and essentially of how the brain works.

Jeff Hawkins is the co-founder of Numenta, which is a neuroscience research company.

I don't think it's a coincidence that he forged out on his own.

And in some ways, he was better placed to do so than a lot of other

Maverick thinkers, because he invented the POM pilot. His focus is on the neocortex, and his goal is to

enable machine intelligence technology based on his theory of how the neocortex functions. And I should say,

it's not just his theory. There's a lot of evidence to

support his model. And essentially, the idea is that we don't just have cells that respond to one

thing or another or act in a vacuum. When we've tried to find a particular part of the brain that is

responsible for complex functions like human intelligence, we have simply failed,

because of course that's not how the brain works. In his new book, A Thousand Brains, Jeff

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