Though my name appears as the author, this book and the Thousand Brains Theory were created by many people. I want to tell you who they are and the roles they played.
The Thousand Brains Theory
Since its inception, over one hundred employees, post-docs, interns, and visiting scientists have worked at Numenta. Everyone contributed in one way or another to the research and papers we produced. If you are part of this group, I thank you.
There are a few people who deserve special mention. Dr. Subutai Ahmad has been my scientific partner for fifteen years. In addition to managing our research team, he contributes to our theories, creates simulations, and derives most of the mathematics underlying our work. The advances made at Numenta would not have happened if it were not for Subutai. Marcus Lewis also made important contributions to the theory. Marcus would often take on a difficult scientific task and come up with surprising ideas and deep insights. Luiz Scheinkman is an incredibly talented software engineer. He was a key contributor to everything we did. Scott Purdy and Dr. Yuwei Cui also made significant contributions to the theory and simulations.
Teri Fry and I have worked together at both the Redwood Neuroscience Institute and Numenta. Teri expertly manages our office and everything required to keep a scientific enterprise running. Matt Taylor managed our online community and was an advocate for open science and science education. He advanced our science in surprising ways. For example, he pushed us to livestream our internal research meetings, which, as far as I know, was a first. Access to scientific research should be free. I would like to thank SciHub.org, an organization that provides access to published research for those who cannot afford it.
Donna Dubinsky is neither a scientist nor an engineer, but her contribution is unsurpassed. We have worked together for almost thirty years. Donna was the CEO of Palm, the CEO of Handspring, the chair of the Redwood Neuroscience Institute, and is now the CEO of Numenta. When Donna and I first met, I was trying to convince her to take the CEO role at Palm. Before she had made up her mind, I told her that my ultimate passion was brain theory, and that Palm was a means to that end. Therefore, in a few years, I would look for a time to leave Palm. Other people might have walked out at that moment or insisted that I commit to Palm for the indefinite future. But Donna made my mission part of her mission. When she was running Palm, she would often tell our employees that we needed the company to be successful so that I would be able to pursue my passion for brain theory. It is not a stretch to say that none of the successes we had in mobile computing, and none of the scientific advances we made at Numenta, would have happened if Donna had not embraced my neuroscience mission on the first day we met.
The Book
It took eighteen months to write this book. Every day I would get to the office at around 7 a.m. and write until about 10 a.m. Although writing itself is solitary work, I had a companion and coach throughout, Christy Maver, our VP of marketing. Although she had no prior experience in writing a book, she learned on the job and became indispensable. She developed a skill for seeing where I needed to say less and where I needed to say more. She helped me organize the writing process and led review sessions of the book with our employees. Although I wrote the book, her presence is throughout. Eric Henney, my editor at Basic Books, and Elizabeth Dana, the copy editor, made numerous suggestions that improved the clarity and readability of the book. James Levine is my literary agent. I can’t recommend him more highly.
I want to thank Dr. Richard Dawkins for his delightful and generous foreword. His insights into genes and memes had a profound effect on my worldview, for which I am grateful. If I could pick one person to write the foreword, it would be him. I am honored that he did.
Janet Strauss, my spouse, read the chapters as I wrote them. I made several structural changes based on her suggestions. But more importantly, she has been the perfect partner for my journey through life. Together we decided to propagate our genes. The result, daughters Kate and Anne, have made our short stay in this world delightful beyond words.