Birth of Intelligence

Daeyeol Lee received his undergraduate degree in economics from Seoul National University in South Korea, and his doctoral degree in neuroscience from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the United States. He has held faculty appointments at Wake Forest University, University of Rochester, and Yale University, before joining the Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute at the Johns Hopkins University as a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in 2019. His research focuses on the brain mechanisms of decision making and high-level cognition.

• PrefaceChapter 1. Levels of IntelligenceWhat is Intelligence? Intelligence without neurons: bacteria to plantsHow does a nervous system work?Reflexes: simple behaviorLimitations of reflexesConnectomeMultiple controllers for musclesEye movements: a case studyMany behaviors are socialChapter 2. Brain and Decision MakingUtility theoryTime and uncertaintyIndecision: Buridan's assLimitations of the utility theoryHappinessUtility theory and the brainMeaning of action potentialsEvolution of utilitiesChapter 3. Artificial IntelligenceBrain versus computerWill computers outperform human brainsSynapse vs. transistorHardware vs. softwareAI on MarsIs Sojourner still alive?Autonomous AIAI and utilitiesRobot society and swarm intelligenceChapter 4. Self-replicating machineSelf-replicating machinesNatural history of self-replicating machinesMulti-talented proteinsMulticellular organismsBrain evolution Evolution and DevelopmentChapter 5. Brain and GenesDivision of labor and delegationPrincipal-agent relationshipBrain's incentiveChapter 6. Why learning?Diversity of learningClassical conditioning: a salivating dogLaw of effect and instrumental conditioning: a curious catInstrumental meets classicalInstrumental and classical clashKnowledge: latent learning and place learningChapter 7. Brain for LearningNeurons and learningSearch for the engramHippocampus and basal gangliaReinforcement learning theoryPleasure chemical: dopamineReinforcement learning and knowledgeRegret and orbitofrontal cortexRegret neuronsChapter 8. Social Intelligence and AltruismGame theoryDeath of game theory?Iterative prisoner's dilemmaPavlov strategyCooperating societyDark side of altruismPredicting the behaviors of othersRecursive mindSocial brainDefault cognition: anthropomorphizationChapter 9. Intelligence and SelfParadox of self-knowledgeMeta-cognition and meta-selectionCost of intelligenceChapter 10. Conclusion: Questions for Artificial Intelligence

Lee maintains that to understand intelligence it is essential to understand how the brain works, and perforce to become more aware of the recent advances in the field of neuroscience. Furthermore, he has done a great job of discussing, in an extremely readable way, a wide range of important topics shedding light on the nature of intelligence: the difference between animal and human intelligence; the strengths and limitations of artificial intelligence; parallels between the relationship of an employer to its agent and the relationship between genes and the brain; the role of learning in the development of intelligence; and the key role of social intelligence in human life overall. While the text is not light reading, the writing is so accessible that even the careful general reader will gain valuable understanding of what intelligence is and what it does from the perspective of an expert.