From PDAs to Neuroscience: The Quest for Understanding Intelligence
Jeffrey Hawkins was born on June 1, 1957, in Huntington, New York. He grew up with a natural curiosity about the world, significantly influenced by his father, who was an engineer. This early exposure to engineering concepts would later marry with his passion for neuroscience to shape his career path.
Hawkins attended Cornell University, where he earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1979. His interest in the brain began early, leading him to study biophysics at the University of California, Berkeley, although he left without completing his degree, drawn back to the tech world.
His tech career started at Intel, but his true impact began when he co-founded Palm Computing in 1992 with Donna Dubinsky. Hawkins was the chief architect behind the PalmPilot, released in 1996, which revolutionized personal digital assistants (PDAs) with its simplicity and user-friendly interface. His innovation extended to the creation of Graffiti, a handwriting recognition system that was integral to the PalmPilot’s success.
After leaving Palm in 1998 due to conflicts over the company’s direction post-acquisition by U.S. Robotics and then 3Com, he co-founded Handspring with Dubinsky and Ed Colligan. Handspring introduced the Visor and later the Treo, blending PDA functionality with phone capabilities, which were precursors to modern smartphones.
However, Hawkins had always harbored a deep interest in understanding intelligence and the workings of the human brain. In 2002, he founded the Redwood Neuroscience Institute, where he could pursue his interest in neuroscience full-time. His work there led to the book “On Intelligence” (2004), co-authored with Sandra Blakeslee, where he proposed his theory of the brain’s function through a memory-prediction framework.
In 2005, Hawkins, along with Dubinsky, founded Numenta, aiming to apply his brain theories to build new types of machine intelligence. Numenta focuses on developing algorithms based on the structure of the neocortex, pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence.
Hawkins’ approach to AI is unique, focusing on understanding and mimicking the human brain rather than the traditional neural network methods. His book, “A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence” (2021), continues this exploration, suggesting how intelligence might be based on a vast network of interconnected cortical columns.
Beyond his entrepreneurial and academic pursuits, Hawkins has served on advisory boards like the Secular Coalition for America, reflecting his broader interests in societal issues. His work has been recognized by his election to the National Academy of Engineering in 2003.
Further Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Hawkins
http://www.browsebiography.com/bio-jeff_hawkins.html
http://www.engineering.cornell.edu/news/jeff-hawkins-bs-79
https://spectrum.ieee.org/jeff-hawkins-the-man-who-wants-to-understand-the-brain