It is an interesting book by someone obviously deeply interested in how the brain works. Many of these insights make you reflect and observe how your brain responds in various situations.

A big service that the book does is to shatter the mystery and aura that surrounds the working of the brain. Jeff approaches the brain as an engineer, and tries to figure out what makes it tick.

It is however very much a for-the-layman book rather than a research work. I was left with the feeling that experts in the field would probably have explored these ideas already. Of course, Hawkins does not claim it as a completely original work, but he does encourage more research in developing artifical neocortext-like memories—and that is very promising indeed.

Fascinating read about the future of computing. I am most impressed by Hawkins writing style – he does not spend a bunch of time talking about how his past predictions have come true, unlike many other prognosticators.

Audio

Insightful