Of all the subjects I’ve been learning about lately, one stands out for its mind-boggling complexity: understanding how the cells and connections in our brains give rise to consciousness and our ability to learn.
在我最近读到的所有学科中，有一个主题以其令人难以置信的复杂性脱颖而出：理解大脑中的细胞和连接是如何让我们产生意识和学习能力的。
Thanks to better instruments for observing brain activity, faster genetic sequencing, and other technological improvements, we’ve learned a lot in recent years. For example, we now understand more about the different types of neurons that make up the brain, how neurons communicate with one another, and which neurons are active when we’re performing all kinds of tasks. As a result, many people call this the golden era of neuroscience.
由于有了更好的仪器来观察大脑活动、更快的基因测序以及其他的技术进步，我们在最近几年学到了很多。比如，我们现在更多地理解了构成大脑的不同类型的神经元，这些神经元之间如何相互交流，以及当我们执行各种任务时，哪些神经元是活跃的。因此，许多人称现在为神经科学的黄金时代。
But let’s put this progress in context. We’re only beginning to understand how a worm’s brain works—and it has only 300 neurons, compared with our 86 billion. So you can imagine how far we are from getting answers to the really big, important questions about brain function, including what causes neurodegeneration and how we can block it. Watching helplessly as my dad declined from Alzheimer’s made me feel as if this era is not yet a golden era. I think it’s more like an early dawn.
现在让我们把这一进展放在具体场景中考虑。我们才刚刚开始了解蠕虫的大脑是如何工作的——它的大脑只有300个神经元，而我们的大脑中则有860亿个神经元。因此你可以想象，我们离找到关于大脑功能重大问题的答案还有多远，这些问题包括是什么原因导致了神经退化，以及我们如何能够阻止这种退化。我眼睁睁地看着父亲因阿尔茨海默症而逐渐衰弱，最终去世。这让我觉得，这个时代似乎还不能算得上是黄金时代。我认为这个时代更像是黄金时代前的黎明。
Over the years, I’ve read quite a few books about the brain, most of them written by academic neuroscientists who view it through the lens of sophisticated lab experiments. Recently, I picked up a brain book that’s much more theoretical. It’s called A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence, by a tech entrepreneur named Jeff Hawkins.
多年来，我读了不少关于大脑的书，其中大部分由学术界的神经科学家所著，他们通过复杂的实验室实验来解析大脑。最近，我读了一本更具理论性的关于大脑的书。这本书是《千脑筋：一种新的智能理论》（中文名暂译），作者是一位名为杰夫·霍金斯的科技企业家。
I got to know Hawkins in the 1990s, when he was one of the pioneers of mobile computing and co-inventor of the PalmPilot. After his tech career, he decided to work with a singular focus on just one problem: making big improvements in machine learning. His platform for doing that is a Silicon Valley–based company called Numenta, which he founded in 2005.
我是在20世纪90年代认识霍金斯的，当时他是移动计算的先驱之一，也是掌上电脑 PalmPilot 的联合发明人。在他的技术职业生涯结束后，他决定只专注于一个问题：在机器学习方面做出重大改进。他于2005年在硅谷创立了Numenta公司，他将这一公司作为研究机器学习的平台。
Machine learning has incredible promise. I believe that in the coming decades we will produce machines that have the kind of broad, flexible “general intelligence” that would enable them to help us address truly complex, multifaceted challenges like improving medicine through a more advanced understanding of how proteins fold. Nothing we call AI today has anything like that kind of intelligence.
机器学习有着不可思议的前景。我相信，在未来的几十年里，我们将制造出用途广泛、行为灵活的“一般智能”机器，这意味着它们能够帮助我们应对真正复杂的、多方面的挑战，比如更深入地了解蛋白质的折叠方式以提升医疗水平。今天我们称之为人工智能的机器中，还没有任何一个能达到这种智能水平。
As Hawkins puts it, “There is no ‘I’ in AI.” Computers can beat a grandmaster in chess, but they don’t know that chess is a game. Hawkins argues that we can’t achieve artificial general intelligence “by doing more of what we are currently doing.” In his view, understanding much more about the part of the brain called the neocortex is key to developing true general AI, and that’s what this book is about.
正如霍金斯所说，“人工智能中没有‘我’。” 电脑可以打败国际象棋大师，但它们其实并不知道国际象棋是一种游戏。霍金斯认为，我们不能通过“做更多我们目前正在做的事情”来实现通用人工智能。在他看来，更深入地了解大脑中被称为新皮质的部分是开发真正通用人工智能的关键，而这正是这本书的主旨。
A Thousand Brains is appropriate for non-experts who have little background in brain science or computer science. It’s filled with fascinating insights into the architecture of the brain and tantalizing clues about the future of intelligent machines. In the foreword, the legendary evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins says the book “will turn your mind into a maelstrom of … provocative ideas.” I agree.
《千脑筋》适合没有什么脑科学或计算机科学背景的非专业人士阅读。书中充满了对大脑结构的迷人见解和关于智能机器未来前景的诱人线索。在前言中，传奇的进化生物学家理查德·道金斯写道，这本书“会让你的头脑变成一个充满……创造性想法的大漩涡。”我同意这一表述。
Hawkins begins by walking us through the basics of the neocortex, which makes up 70 percent of the human brain. It’s responsible for almost everything we associate with intelligence, such as our ability to speak, create music, and solve complex problems.
霍金斯首先向我们介绍了新皮质的基本情况，它占人类大脑的70%，负责与我们智力相关的几乎所有事情，比如我们说话、创作音乐和解决复杂问题的能力。
Borrowing from the work of neuroscientist Vernon Mountcastle, Hawkins reports that the basic circuit of the neocortex is called a “cortical column,” which is divided into several hundred “minicolumns” with about a hundred individual neurons. He argues that “our quest to understand intelligence boils down to figuring out what a cortical column does and how it does it.”
霍金斯引用了神经科学家弗农·蒙卡斯尔的研究发现，霍金斯指出，新皮质的基本单元被称为“皮质柱”，可进一步细分为几百个“迷你柱”，每个迷你柱上约有一百个独立的神经元。他认为，“我们对理解智力的探索，归根结底是要弄清楚皮质柱的功能是什么以及它是如何运作的。”
He believes that the basic function of the cortical column is to make constant predictions about the world as we move through it. “With each movement, the neocortex predicts what the next sensation will be,” Hawkins writes. “If any input doesn’t match with the brain’s prediction … this alerts the neocortex that its model of that part of the world needs to be updated.”
他认为，皮质柱的基本功能是在我们感知世界的过程中不断地对世界进行预测。“每进行一次动作，新皮质就会预测下一刻会出现什么感觉，”霍金斯写道。“如果有什么感知与大脑的预测不一致……这就会提醒新皮质，它对那部分世界的模型需要更新了。”
The name of the book comes from Hawkins’s conclusion that cortical columns operate in parallel, each making separate predictions about what the next sensory input will be. In other words, each column functions as its own separate learning machine.
这本书的书名来自霍金斯的结论，即皮质柱是平行运作的，每个皮质柱对下一刻的感知进行单独预测。换言之，每个皮质柱都作为自己独立的学习机器进行运作。
If Hawkins is right that the only viable path to artificial general intelligence is by replicating the workings of the neocortex, that means it’s unlikely that intelligent machines will supplant or subjugate the human race—the kind of thing you see in classic sci-fi movies like The Matrix and The Terminator. That’s because the neocortex operates differently from parts of the brain that evolved much earlier and that drive our primal emotions and instincts.
如果霍金斯的观点是正确的，即通向一般人工智能的唯一可行途径就是复制新皮质的工作原理，那么就意味着智能机器不太可能取代或征服人类——就像你在《黑客帝国》和《终结者》等经典科幻电影中看到的那样。这是因为新皮质的运作方式不同于大脑中进化更早的那些部分，以及驱动我们原始情感和本能的那些部分。
“Intelligent machines need to have a model of the world and the flexibility of behavior that comes from that model, but they don’t need to have human-like instincts for survival and procreation”
“智能机器需要有一个关于世界的模型，以及来自该模型的行为灵活性，但它们不需要像人类那样拥有生存和繁衍的本能” 
“Intelligent machines need to have a model of the world and the flexibility of behavior that comes from that model, but they don’t need to have human-like instincts for survival and procreation,” Hawkins writes. In other words, we will eventually be able to create machines that replicate the logical, rational neocortex without having to wrap it around an old brain that’s an “ignorant brute” wired for fear, greed, jealousy, and other human sins. That’s why Hawkins dismisses the notion that humans will lose control of the machines they create.
霍金斯写道：“智能机器需要有一个关于世界的模型，以及来自该模型的行为灵活性，但它们不需要像人类那样拥有生存和繁衍的本能。” 换言之，我们最终将能够创造出复制新皮质逻辑和理性的机器，而不必将新皮质包裹在由恐惧、贪婪、嫉妒和其他人类罪恶驱使的“无知的野蛮人”的旧大脑中。这就是为什么霍金斯不赞同“人类将失去对他们所创造机器的控制”这样的观点。
Unfortunately, we may still need to worry about the dark side of artificial intelligence. Even if intelligent machines replicate only the “new brain” and are not saddled with an “old brain,” some people will still try to use them for bad purposes. Sadly, that is human nature.
不幸的是，我们可能仍然需要担心人工智能的阴暗面。即使智能机器只复制了“新大脑”，不被“旧大脑”所束缚，一些人仍会试图将其用于不良目的。可悲的是，这就是人类的本性。
In the end, I come back to my starting premise that we’re still early in our understanding of the human brain compared with just about every other part of our world. We don’t know yet whether Hawkins’s Thousand Brains Theory will hold up to experimental scrutiny. And even if it does, we still don’t know how to replicate cortical columns with digital technologies.
最后，回到我刚开始提到的前提，相比于对世界的其他部分的了解，我们对人脑的理解还处于早期阶段。我们还不知道霍金斯的“千脑筋理论”能否经得起实验的检验。即使该理论能成立，我们仍然不知道如何用数字技术来复制皮质柱。
All I know for sure is that I’ll be reading a lot more about this topic. My hope is that it will help lead to great breakthroughs in the way we go about solving the world’s hardest problems.
可以肯定的是，我将会读到更多关于这个主题的文章。我希望这能帮助我们取得重大突破，解决这一世界上最棘手的问题。
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