Uploaded December 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Show notes:
braininspired.co/podcast/181
Patreon for full episodes and Discord community:
patreon.com/braininspired
Video Series: Open Questions in AI and Neuroscience:
braininspired.co/open
Apple podcasts:
itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/brain-inspired/id1428880766?mt=2
Spotify:
open.spotify.com/show/2UZj8c8Ap5oc2gh2rJxLLe
Music by: The New Year:
thenewyear.net
By day, Max Bennett has cofounded and CEO'd multiple AI and technology companies making him an entrepreneur. By many other countless hours, he has studied brain related sciences. Those long hours of research have payed off in the form of this book, A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains.
As he says toward the beginning, but it's worth repeating here, three lines of research formed the basis for how Max synthesized knowledge into the ideas in his current book: findings from comparative psychology (comparing brains and minds of different species), evolutionary neuroscience (how brains have evolved), and artificial intelligence, especially the algorithms developed to carry out functions. We go through I think all five of the breakthroughs in some capacity, and a recurring theme is that a given single breakthrough Max cites may explain multiple new abilities. For example, the evolution of the neocortex may have endowed early mammals with the ability to simulate or imagine what isn't immediately present, and this ability might further explain mammals' capacity to engage in vicarious trial and error (imagining possible actions before trying them out), the capacity to engage in counterfactual learning (what would have happened if things went differently than they did), and the capacity for episodic memory and imagination.
So the book is filled with unifying accounts like that, and it makes for a great read, and you should strap in, but because Max gives a sort of masterclass about many of the ideas in his book.
0:00 - Intro
5:26 - Why evolution is important
7:22 - Maclean's triune brain
14:59 - Breakthrough 1: Steering
29:06 - Fish intelligence
40:38 - Breakthrough 3: Mentalizing
52:44 - How could we improve the human brain?
1:00:44 - What is intelligence?
1:13:50 - Breakthrough 5: Speaking
Show notes:
braininspired.co/podcast/181
Patreon for full episodes and Discord community:
patreon.com/braininspired
Video Series: Open Questions in AI and Neuroscience:
braininspired.co/open
Apple podcasts:
itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/brain-inspired/id1428880766?mt=2
Spotify:
open.spotify.com/show/2UZj8c8Ap5oc2gh2rJxLLe
Music by: The New Year:
thenewyear.net
By day, Max Bennett has cofounded and CEO'd multiple AI and technology companies making him an entrepreneur. By many other countless hours, he has studied brain related sciences. Those long hours of research have payed off in the form of this book, A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains.
As he says toward the beginning, but it's worth repeating here, three lines of research formed the basis for how Max synthesized knowledge into the ideas in his current book: findings from comparative psychology (comparing brains and minds of different species), evolutionary neuroscience (how brains have evolved), and artificial intelligence, especially the algorithms developed to carry out functions. We go through I think all five of the breakthroughs in some capacity, and a recurring theme is that a given single breakthrough Max cites may explain multiple new abilities. For example, the evolution of the neocortex may have endowed early mammals with the ability to simulate or imagine what isn't immediately present, and this ability might further explain mammals' capacity to engage in vicarious trial and error (imagining possible actions before trying them out), the capacity to engage in counterfactual learning (what would have happened if things went differently than they did), and the capacity for episodic memory and imagination.
So the book is filled with unifying accounts like that, and it makes for a great read, and you should strap in, but because Max gives a sort of masterclass about many of the ideas in his book.
0:00 - Intro
5:26 - Why evolution is important
7:22 - Maclean's triune brain
14:59 - Breakthrough 1: Steering
29:06 - Fish intelligence
40:38 - Breakthrough 3: Mentalizing
52:44 - How could we improve the human brain?
1:00:44 - What is intelligence?
1:13:50 - Breakthrough 5: Speaking
