This is the second book that Phil Terry asked us to read as part of the Creative Good fellows program. It was writted by Jeff Hawkins, creator of the PalmPilot and Treo. Turns out Jeff's other passion is trying to understand how the brain works.

This book lays out his theory of how the mind works in layman's terms. Hawkins premise is that the brain uses a "memory-prediction" framework to operate, and states that his model fills in a lot of holes in existing models of how the brain works. In other words, the brain store past experiences as patterns, and uses those patterns to predict how future events will occur. If future events differ from the predictions, the brain parses the new patterns and adjusts its predictions accordingly.

The model is simple at heart, and makes a lot of sense to this layman. Hawkins' goal is to ultimately build computerized brains, and expresses disappointment at current efforts to do so. This book is a well thought-out argument that thumbs its nose at current thinking, and in my experience, this will only help in achieving Hawkins' ultimate goal of building a functioning brain.