A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence

by Jeff Hawkins

The first paper is titled “A Theory of How Columns in the Neocortex Enable Learning the Structure of the World.” This paper starts with the same circuit we described in the 2016 paper on neurons and sequence memory. We then added one layer of neurons representing location and a second layer representing the object being sensed. With these additions, we showed that a single cortical column could learn the three-dimensional shape of objects by sensing and moving and sensing and moving. For example, imagine reaching into a black box and touching a novel object with one finger. You can learn the shape of the entire object by moving your finger over its edges. Our paper explained how a single cortical column can do this. We also showed how a column can recognize a previously learned object in the same manner, for example by moving a finger. We then showed how multiple columns in the neocortex work together to more quickly recognize objects. For example, if you reach into the black box and grab an unknown object with your entire hand, you can recognize it with fewer movements and in some cases in a single grasp.