Contents

Cover

Title Page

Dedication

Epigraph

The Basics of Human Brain Anatomy

Our Evolutionary Lineage

Introduction

1: The World Before Brains

Breakthrough #1: Steering and the First Bilaterians

2: The Birth of Good and Bad

3: The Origin of Emotion

4: Associating, Predicting, and the Dawn of Learning

Breakthrough #2: Reinforcing and the First Vertebrates

5: The Cambrian Explosion

6: The Evolution of Temporal Difference Learning

7: The Problems of Pattern Recognition

8: Why Life Got Curious

9: The First Model of the World

Breakthrough #3: Simulating and the First Mammals

10: The Neural Dark Ages

11: Generative Models and the Neocortical Mystery

12: Mice in the Imaginarium

13: Model-Based Reinforcement Learning

14: The Secret to Dishwashing Robots

Breakthrough #4: Mentalizing and the First Primates

15: The Arms Race for Political Savvy

16: How to Model Other Minds

17: Monkey Hammers and Self-Driving Cars

18: Why Rats Can’t Go Grocery Shopping

Breakthrough #5: Speaking and the First Humans

19: The Search for Human Uniqueness

20: Language in the Brain

21: The Perfect Storm

22: ChatGPT and the Window into the Mind

Conclusion: The Sixth Breakthrough

Acknowledgments

Glossary

Bibliography

Notes

Index

About the Author

Praise for A Brief History of Intelligence

Copyright

About the Publisher