...build intelligent machines that can replicate the brain's neocortex, the source of human intelligence.
In his book, On Intelligence, Hawkins presents a theory of the brain that argues that intelligence is measured by the ability to make predictions by seeing patterns in the world. He's attempting to make computers intelligent by teaching them to find and use patterns in specific trades. For example, by programming a computer to "think" by watching patterns of visual images on a security monitor, a company might save on paying several night watchmen.
What if the power goes off?
"A real inflection point that's going to happen in the next three or four years will be when humans aren't the only ones exhibiting intelligence," Hawkins said.
Still, neuroscientists believe that humans are already smarter today because of technology and that as our culture evolves, our brains will continuously change and evolve. Mike Merzenich, a neuroscientist and cofounder of San Francisco-based Posit Science, a company that develops programs for brain fitness, has studied what's known as brain plasticity, the brain's ability to adapt and change physically and functionally throughout life.
"Our brains are different from those of all humans before us. Our brain is modified on a substantial scale... each time we learn a new skill or develop a new ability," Merzenich wrote in an email interview. Still, technologists must be careful about developing computers that outstrip our own ability to think abstractly, thereby making people redundant.
But what happens if the power goes off?
EM Forster's The Machine Stops, published in 1909, is about a society that's heavily dependent on a machine, which among other things, cleans house and provides the food. One day, the machine stops, and the society must reconstruct itself by relying on only a few people who remember what to do.
"The moment it gets switched off is echoed [in today's society] when the lights go down and we don't know how to fix the car or light the fire," Zittrain said.
Of course, the same could be said if phone lines go down, or the electricity goes out. The real danger is not being cut off from the Internet: it's that some people never get to use it and are at risk of falling perilously behind those who take Net access for granted.
"With the Internet and contemporary technology evolving at lightning pace over the past 40 years," Posit Science's Merzenich said, "the demands of uploading from our cultural history are incredible, and we're seeing more and more people falling off the boat."
