The Pattern of Human Intelligence (part 2)

The brain is a memory system that stores experiences in a way that reflects the  structure of our world of perception. It is a system that remembers sequences of events and makes predictions based on these memories. We then have the liberty to take action on our predictions. According to On Intelligence author Jeff Hawkins, such a system is the basis of human intelligence, perception, creativity, thoughts, behavior, and even consciousness. His hierarchical temporal memory prediction model also goes a long way to explaining all kinds of human behavioral phenomena that one can observe in everyday life: interpersonal relations, cognitive development, learning processes, false belief persistence, communication, miscommunication, personality disorders, mental illnesses, even dreaming.

His theory shows that the brain doesn't ''compute'' answers to problems; rather, it retrieves the answers from memory. Moreover, it only takes a few steps to retrieve something from memory. In short, the brain is a memory system. It isn't a computer at all.

There is no such thing as "a" thought in a cardinal sense, he says.  It is all dynamic; it is all process; it is all interconnected neural activity. He makes the point that human curiosity is not purely cognitive; it is biased toward the survival utility of information. Proximate and changing objects are more likely to affect the subject in a short term, thus attracting far more attention than they would for their contribution to predictive power alone.

Recent inputs to our senses are relatively more predictive than the old ones by the virtue of their proximity to future inputs. This is why it is important to review or practice if one wishes to stay ‘sharp.’ Thus, proximity or recentness should determine the order of a memory search within a level of cortical prior experience. Memory searches are unconsciously made though often volitionally started. This is why, in my opinion, that prayer and regular scripture study and review is so important; it is proximal, but stimulates retrieval of that which is stored and therefore reinforces it. 

Mr. Hawkins gives us a physical example of how this works.  He is saying is that the brain does NOT calculate the flight of a thrown ball, for example, but instead recalls from memory similar flights of balls while at the same time recalling again from memory the muscular workings of the body as it went after and caught or did not catch similar balls in flight. After a bit of practice (storing and retrieving memories) a person can get very good at catching balls.  In other words the brain predicts where the ball is going to be not through a laborious and lengthy calculation (that is why robots cannot catch balls) but through rapidly accessed memories of similar events.  By the same token one can get very good at playing the piano or dancing or doing public speaking or mathematics or doing virtually anything. Even spirituality is a ‘talent’ that can be developed. Nerve ‘pathways,’ which go both ways, are being activated, connected, and conditioned. 

This is a startling insight. Hawkins shows how everything we do is based on our brain's ability to use memories to predict events and thus take appropriate actions based on previous experience. To review in a little more detail how it works:

First there is a "sequence of patterns" of past events stored in the brain. These come from past experience with the pattern we inserted in our cortex or from the ‘software,’ the algorithm,  that was provided us sometime before birth. These can be ‘direct’ experiences, ‘other-modeled’ experiences, ‘perceived’ experiences, or even ‘vicarious’ experiences.  Patterns can correspond to concepts as well as the output of the physical senses.

Second, the brain has an ‘auto-associative mechanism’ that allows it to "recall complete patterns when given only partial or distorted inputs."  Information is stored in ‘invariant form,’ so that a face, for example, can be recognized despite the lighting, angle, partial exposure, and so on; these stored ‘invariant representations’ of actual, or what has become ‘actual,’ events, objects, or concepts in memory  predict solutions, (facial identification in this example), and continuously compares results to predictions to validate. "Prediction," as Mr. Hawkins asserts, "is the primary function of the neo-cortex, and the foundation of intelligence.... Intelligence is measured by the capacity to remember and predict patterns in the world. Our sense of self is even a pattern.

These predictions are about everything in our lives and they involve all of our senses. As Hawkins puts it, "All regions of your neo-cortex are simultaneously trying to predict what their next experience will be. Visual areas make predictions about edges, shapes, objects, locations, and motions. Auditory areas make predictions about tones, direction to source, and patterns of sound. Somatosensory areas make predictions about touch, texture, contour, and temperature."  So it goes with other sensory areas. These different brain areas or regions interact by making connections as necessary to the retrieval of the pattern or algorithm that leads to the solution of the problem or bodily response.  If the prediction is incorrect, then this information is moved up the hierarchy and learning may occur as new and often more general kinds of classifications (invariant representations) are made dynamically.

I would submit that the algorithm that is the very essence of the human spirit, when activated in a physical body is what makes us a living soul (body + spirit being the ‘soul’ of man). We are given ‘the breath of life’—the algorithm of life, if you will, when we become a living soul. 

The cortex is always processing spatial/temporal patterns of impulses, whether these originated outside of the cortex, as sounds, images, touch, smell; feedback from the body's own activity such as moving or lifting an object (proprioception); thoughts generated within the cortex; or cognizance of  the initial endowment or algorithm  of what makes us human—again, the gift of human  life.

Succinctly stated, human intelligence is predictive pattern-matching. When what we predict matches what we observe, we ‘understand’; when our prediction is incorrect we are confused.  Understanding is intelligence.

 What I add to this discussion is what scripture tells us: “The glory of God is intelligence— or in other words, light and truth.” As we diligently seek further light and truth I postulate we will activate connection with the pattern that is already there. Holy scriptures record that the Roman procurator Pilate, who had a great contempt for the Jewish people and their religion, standing in the presence of Christ asked, “What is truth?”  Unfortunately he left before hearing the answer.  I suspect Jesus might have said something like this: ‘I AM; keep it in mind.’