Jeff Hawkins with Anil Ananthaswamy

This event is online.

In a book that biologist Richard Dawkins calls “exhilarating,” author, neuroscientist and engineer Jeff Hawkins unveils a new theory of intelligence with awe-inspiring implications. Get ready for a dynamic and exciting conversation about the brain with Kepler’s.

In a century rife with neuroscientific and biological advances, researchers have made little progress one very big question: how do the simple cells of the brain create complex consciousness and intelligence?

Hawkins, cofounder of the neuroscience research company Numenta, dares to answer with A Thousand Brains. In a compulsively readable book accessible even to the casual science reader, he lays forth a simple and yet mold-breaking theory: that intelligence arises from the interaction of maplike reference structures in the brain, which build hundreds of thousands of interconnected models of everything a person knows. These maplike reference frames can tell you how to achieve goals, how to get from one place to another, who you are and how you’re connected to the world.

For the past fifteen years, Hawkins and his Silicon Valley based research team have studied the neocortex, the part of the brain we associate with everything responsible for intelligence. Now with his “thousand brains” theory of the structure that runs the show, Hawkins proposes answers to some of neurosciences most stubborn questions—questions about the very nature of consciousness.

On March 10th, join us for an online conversation between Jeff Hawkins and award-winning science journalist Anil Ananthaswamy as they share with us A Thousand Brains. Starting with basic information on how the brain works for anyone to understand, they’ll discuss a Jeff’s new theory and explore what it could mean not only for advancements in science like machine intelligence, but also its broader implications for all of us as people. This will be a smart, fun night celebrating a key moment in our understanding of the human brain: don’t miss it!

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Registration will close one hour before the event; please reserve your spot early to guarantee access, as registrations are limited.**