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Jeff Hawkins and Ayn Rand theory of concepts

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Jeff Hawkins runs a company that is dedicated to creating software that can mimic the human neocortex. I think his theory on how the brain works corroborates with the theory of concepts postulated by ayn rand. Specifically with here notion of the hierarchical nature of knowledge.

He bases his work on the latest scientific data about the brain which indicates that the human neocortex is itself wired hierarchical, which then would also be reflected in an hierarchical stucture of concepts, which in turn can only, properly, refer to the evidence of the senses.

In this video Jeff talks about his theory: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2500845581503718756

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Jeff Hawkins is one of those bottom-up reality oriented people I approve of. In what might be the first captured nontechnical application of his theory, here in

(6:14) he seems to suggest beliefs can be changed by eroding away at them from the bottom, not by top down argumentation. He does not use the word induction, but he is describing belief formation as an inductive process.
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Jeff Hawkins runs a company that is dedicated to creating software that can mimic the human neocortex. I think his theory on how the brain works corroborates with the theory of concepts postulated by ayn rand. Specifically with here notion of the hierarchical nature of knowledge.

He bases his work on the latest scientific data about the brain which indicates that the human neocortex is itself wired hierarchical, which then would also be reflected in an hierarchical stucture of concepts, which in turn can only, properly, refer to the evidence of the senses.

In this video Jeff talks about his theory: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2500845581503718756

Rand did not discover the hierarchical structure of concepts or knowledge!

-- Mindy

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Rand did not discover the hierarchical structure of concepts or knowledge!

-- Mindy

Who have discovered it before her? I suspect many people have known about it at least implicitly for some time. But in any event, I have not heard of anybody who saw the implication of the explicit realization of this fact before Ayn Rand.

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This hierarchy apparently is a feature of every living being. See:

Biology & Philosophy

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007

10.1007/s10539-007-9079-5

Nano-intentionality: a defense of intrinsic intentionality

W. Tecumseh Fitch1

(1) School of Psychology, St Mary’s Quad, University of St Andrews, Rm 2.57, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9JP, UK

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Guest ZAC D.

Has anyone here read Carl Sagan's Dragons of Eden? Inwhich He talks about the evolutional hierarchy of human intelligence.

Edited by ZAC D.
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"Jeff Hawkins presented the opening keynote address of the 39th International Symposium on Computer Architecture on June 11, 2012 in Portland, OR. In this presentation, Jeff describes sparse distributed representations, and their impact on future computer architectures."

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