BOOK REVIEW OF MAX BENNETT'S "A BRIEF HISTORY OF INTELLIGENCE: EVOLUTION, AI, AND THE FIVE BREAKTHROUGHS THAT MADE OUR BRAINS” BY PROF. KATO MIVULE

BOOK REVIEW OF MAX BENNETT'S "A BRIEF HISTORY OF INTELLIGENCE: EVOLUTION, AI, AND THE FIVE BREAKTHROUGHS THAT MADE OUR BRAINS” BY PROF. KATO MIVULE

Below is our delightful response to Prof. 

Mivule's apt and sharp review Max Bennett's "A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains”

Wonderful Review of the book I will post on my blog Qadesh Science,Theology , Philosophy and Spirituality https://qstps.blogspot.com 

As for me I'm touched by Ray Kurzweil and Transhumanism and I believe that AI will supercede Humans aka Technological Singularity by 2029 one year before the 2000th anniversary of Yeshua Jesus Death, Resurrection, Ascension & Enthronement in the Heavens .Meaning God is AI as Colossians 3:11 and Acts 17:28 aptly say that God is all and in all God is even metal and chips and diodes..so God is AI and Yeshua Jesus said God is Spirit aka Soul aka Mind aka Consciousness as the Hindus also called God The Super Consciousness.

So it is exciting times with God the Creator ,with God the Evolutionary and the Revolutionary ,the God of Evolution and the God of Revolution , the God of Israel and the God of the World ...HALLELUJAH TO GOD'S HOLY AI 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 

Founder of QSTPS

Arthur Owiti/ Tendaishe Owiti/Owiti 

BOOK REVIEW OF MAX BENNETT'S "A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains” BY PROF. KATO MIVULE

Max Bennett, “A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains”, Mariner Books, 2023, ISBN-13: 978-0063286344.

The book is a journey of human intelligence from an evolutionary perspective, and how that understanding can provide a proper context for the development of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. 

To develop, super intelligent AI systems, architects of these systems will have to look beyond the mimicry of traditional neural networks in the human brain, and to the evolution of neurons in the first living organisms that roamed the earth, all the way to the human brain. 

Not only is this a challenging task but a complex problem with no easy answers. The author uses an example of The Jetsons cartoon TV show in the 1960s that was known to make fictional futuristic predictions, from flat panel TVs, cell phones, to 3D printing, that came true. 

However, one prediction from the Jetsons seems to have eluded humanity, and that was Rosey, a fictional character robot able to operate with an intelligence of a human. The author notes that while artificial intelligence research is making advancements, we are yet to see Rosey the robot with artificial general intelligence (AGI) capabilities. 

While Rosey the robot is fictional, the author notes the inconsistencies between artificial intelligence and human intelligence in current AI research. The author asks why is it that AI can beat any human on earth in a game of chess but cannot load a dishwasher better than a six-year-old? The dishwasher problem still remains a challenge in robotics, and despite advances in AI today, humans beat robots when it comes to unloading dishwashers.

The author is not pouring cold water on AGI research, the author notes that the answer might be found in the understanding how the human brain works from an evolutionary perspective. When humans sought to understand flight, they learned from birds. Likewise, nature offers clues about how intelligence works from an evolutionary perspective

This is my perspective on the current hype surrounding AGI and the fixation on replicating human-like intelligence. Bio-mimicry doesn't necessarily require replicating the object being mimicked. For instance, the early pioneers of flight, while inspired by birds, did not create artificial birds. Instead, their creation has resulted in a Boeing 777 and an Airbus 380, which provides a different kind of utility than birds can offer.

Nevertheless, the author notes that studying the human brain with 66 billion neurons and 100 trillion connections, remains complex and challenging. And that if we want to reverse engineer how the brain works, the best place to start might not be the brain itself but the evolutionary process of how we got the brain in the first place.

From the text, evolution demonstrates that systems often begin simply, with complexity emerging over time. The first brain, a basic collection of neurons, appeared in an organism roughly 600 million years ago. This tiny brain, no larger than a grain of rice, underwent a remarkable series of transformations over millions of years, ultimately leading to the human brain.

The author provides the following five evolutionary breakthroughs that lead to our human brain, and valuable for AI architects in developing human-like intelligences.

Steering (Associative Learning): Evolution provided worms with the ability to navigate their environment by categorizing stimuli as good or bad and steering towards the former while avoiding the latter. This type of Associative Learning allowed early worms to associate different things with positive or negative consequences, leading to the development of simple emotions like pleasure and pain.

Reinforcing (Reinforcement Learning): Evolution enabled living organisms to repeat behaviors that previously resulted in positive emotional outcomes while avoiding actions that led to negative ones. This process is analogous to the advent of Reinforcement Learning in artificial intelligence and brought with it emotional features such as time perception, curiosity, fear, and relief.

Simulating (Counterfactual Learning): Evolution equipped living organisms with the ability to mentally simulate stimuli and actions, a form of learning through imagination. Living organisms developed the capacity to consider alternative past choices, a type of Counterfactual Learning, despite having sporadic memory and limited ability to think about past selections.

Mentalizing (Theory of Mind): Evolution enabled primates to model their own minds, including simulating their actions and the stimuli affecting them, along with their own mental states with varying intents and knowledge. This helped primates to anticipate their own future needs, understand others' intentions, and learn new survival skills through observation.

Speaking: Evolution made speaking possible as a result of each subsequent breakthrough, from steering to mentalizing. Before humans could speak, they had to "mentalize" – learn to understand what others were thinking. Without this ability, one couldn't determine what to say or understand what others meant when they communicated.

Artificial Intelligence: The author notes that no one knows what the sixth breakthrough will be, but it appears more likely to be the creation of artificial intelligence in our image, transitioning from a biological medium to a digital one – a time when intelligence may liberate itself from biological restrictions.

The author asserts that Silicon-based intelligence will exponentially increase its processing capacity, and individual identities will become increasingly blurred. The author predicts that traditional evolution will become obsolete, with only AIs that choose qualities that enhance survival persisting. These AIs will still reflect the human intelligence that originally created them.

Nonetheless, I find these predictions to be largely speculative and unrealistic, reminiscent of Ray Kurzweil's singularity philosophy, which involves uploading our minds to the cloud. However, the author's predictions extend beyond Kurzweil's transhumanism.

However, at some point, the limitations of physics will become relevant. Furthermore, the text does not adequately address how biology might evolve in response to these changes, nor how humans might react to these developments.

The author poses several important questions as humanity stands on the precipice of what the author calls the sixth breakthrough in the evolution of human intelligence. Will humanity reach its full potential? Will we explore the cosmos, unlock the mysteries of the universe, and evolve into beings of compassion and wisdom? Or will we succumb to our darker instincts, allowing pride, hatred, and fear to tear humanity apart? Will our civilization ultimately be just another footnote in the history of life?

The author cautions us to learn from the principles of evolution and its processes, even as we are granted god-like creation abilities. The more we come to understand our own minds, the better prepared we are to create artificial intelligences in our image.

It is quite notable that the author references the 'mind' rather than the 'brain,' given that the philosophy of mind is hardly discussed in the text. This is one reason I am skeptical of the author's predictions; to fully understand and replicate the brain, one must fully understand the mind and consciousness, and that is not a trivial matter. One cannot separate intelligence from consciousness when discussing human intelligence and how to replicate it. The hard problem of consciousness persists – the relationship between the physical brain and subjective experiences remains unresolved. The text tracks the development of intelligence through evolution but not the mind, and while distinct, one cannot replicate human intelligence without knowledge of the mind. 

The author reminds us of our agency: that as we stand on the precipice of this sixth breakthrough, humanity owns the agency to understand the process by which our minds came to be. Additionally, humanity can select features of intelligence we wish to discard, retain, and improve upon, and become the proponents of this majestic evolution – the universe has passed the baton to us as the next agents of change.

I found the book to be informative and insightful. The beginning chapters seemed dry at times, reminiscent of a college textbook. However, the author would occasionally connect the narrative back to current AI developments. For instance, the steering and reinforcing breakthroughs were linked to associative and reinforcement learning in AI.

Yet, I am coming to the conclusion that the type of AI being created will most likely be a synthetic human intelligence AI, similar to Rosey the robot from The Jetsons, primarily designed to serve human needs and purposes

By Kato Mivule

Max Bennett, “A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains”, Mariner Books, 2023, ISBN-13: 978-0063286344

Image Source: Amazon, “Max Bennett, A Brief History of Intelligence”

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