Science and Inquiry discussion

For September 2024, we will be reading A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains by Max Solomon Bennett.

Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

Betsy wrote: "For September 2024, we will be reading A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains..."

Great! Thanks Betsy :-)

I was just able to get a copy of the hardcover book. It has a really nice feel to it. Looking forward to starting to read it!

My favorite topic covered by this book:

My curiosity was especially appeased by the sections focused on the mammals' advanced neocortex part of the brain.

It's worth knowing that birds seem to have evolved their own neocortex-like structure. But it doesn't exist for other animals like invertebrates, fish, amphibians, and reptiles.

Our neocortex is 2 to 4 millimeters thick and is significantly folded to fit inside the cranium. For an adult human, the neocortex unfolded is about 3 square feet or the size of a small desk. Names for regions of the neocortex, like the visual cortex located in the back of the neocortex, drop the neo prefix.

Surprisingly, under a microscope the neocortex looks identical everywhere and it looks relatively the same from one mammal species to another. The cortical sheet is a bunch of neocortical columns packed densely together which are repeating and duplicated micro circuits. The human neocortex is made up of over 10 billion neurons and trillions of connections. Rather than the entire structure's outrageous complexity, it's possible in the future, we need only to focus learning and understanding on the function of this micro circuit that is repeated a million, or so, times.

Each neocortical column does exactly the same thing. The only difference between regions of the neocortex is the input they receive and where they send the output. As you know, for example, the visual cortex of congenitally blind people does not become a functionally useless region. Instead, it has becomes repurposed and responsive to a multitude of other sensory input like hearing and touch. Areas of the neocortex seem interchangeable.

Due to our neocortex, we have peculiar properties of perception. For example: 1) Our neocortex fills in to substitute for missing or noisy visual or auditory input data, 2) Our minds like to have an interpretation that explains sensory input. Therefore, we are very sensitive to suggestions because we can't unsee, 3) At a noisy cocktail party, we can only perceive one conversation at a time. Though, we are capable of switching our attention to a different conversation, 4) We cannot imagine things and recognize things simultaneously. For example, we cannot read a book and imagine having breakfast at the same time, 5) Dreaming and imagination are the same general neuroprocess. When people are imagining things, their pupils dilate as the brain stops processing actual visual data and temporarily become pseudo blind.

The neocortex, in generation mode, can imagine things they are not currently experiencing. The imagined thing is a simulated reality in our neocortex.

Some neuroscientists refer to perception, even when it's functioning properly, as a constrained hallucination. Without sensory input, this hallucination becomes unconstrained. Our neocortex continuously strives to match our inner hallucination of reality to the sensory information we are seeing. It wants to predict things before they happen by continuously comparing the actual sensory data with the data predicted by its simulation.

Michael wrote: "The neocortex, in generation mode, can imagine things they are not currently experiencing. The imagined thing is a simulated reality in our neocortex."

And do you think that studying the neocortex might also help us understand psychopathy better?

Psychopathy may be linked to underdevelopment of the brain's prefrontal cortex and amygdala, which are involved in complex thinking, decision-making, planning, and processing emotions. 

Also, extremely fast decision making needed for language and word choice occurs in the front part of the neocortex (i.e., our characteristic high forehead).

Michael wrote: "Psychopathy may be linked to underdevelopment of the brain's prefrontal cortex and amygdala, which are involved in complex thinking, decision-making, planning, and processing emotions. 

Also, extr..."
Thanks you for the insights, Michael! ;)

Just finishing the first chapter, here are some thoughts:
- I really enjoyed the summary of how life came to be (a bit different to what Nick Lane writes about in The Vital Question), specially when focusing on the importance of genetic material and its ability to replicate.
- I loved the evolution theory-based arguments of how the first cells, cell functions, organisms, and first cell types (like muscle cells and neurons) came to be. A bit similar as well here on what Nicholas Humphrey in Sentience: The Invention of Consciousness talks about, although a bit more summarized.
- the book has already made me reflect a lot on the differences of what we call today AI and what it can actually do vs. how intelligence evolved in nature and what would we need to actually replicate that. It feels like AI today is shortcutting its way to only appear intelligent without having the requirements for an intelligence to be developed. Although, it's pretty amazing both what AI can do today and the underlying math, computation, design, etc. of its systems.

I got the book from my library today!

This is a very very good science read. I highly recommend it, especially to non-scientists like myself. I learned quite a bit about brain cells that I had only been getting a smattering of explanations here and there. The book not only is well-researched, it is written in clear explanations.