JEFF HAWKINS OTHER ACTIVITIES

The inventor of the Palm Pilot is busy with other stuff:

There's no mistaking what they study at the Redwood Neuroscience Institute. There are brains all over the place.

From the colorful pictures of brain coral that hang on the walls to the promotional key chains sporting little plastic cerebral cortices, you'd have to be gray-matterless not to notice the decorative theme at this nonprofit scientific research organization. Though it may all seem a little over the top to the average visitor, such brain mania seems excusable for someone who's spent about 25 years studying the workings of this most thoughtful of organs.


The institute's director, Jeff Hawkins, was interested in the brain even before he helped spawn an industry with his most famous invention, the PalmPilot. In his spare time, he learned the sciences behind brain research, and after becoming versed in them he developed his own theory, which is contrary to some of the established ideas. In his first book, "On Intelligence," Hawkins explains his theory and how it can be used to build truly smart machines--a question others have tackled, through the study of artificial intelligence and neural networks, but haven't resolved. (full article)