Birth of Intelligence: From RNA to Artificial Intelligence

What is intelligence? How did it begin and evolve to human intelligence? Does a high level of biological intelligence require a complex brain? Can man-made machines be truly intelligent? Is AI fundamentally different from human intelligence? In Birth of Intelligence, distinguished neuroscientist Daeyeol Lee tackles these pressing fundamental issues. To better prepare for future society and its technology, including how the use of AI will impact our lives, it is essential to understand the biological root and limits of human intelligence. After systematically reviewing biological and computational underpinnings of decision making and intelligent behaviors, Birth of Intelligence proposes that true intelligence requires life.

Table of Contents:
Preface Chapter 1. Levels of Intelligence What is Intelligence? Intelligence without neurons: bacteria to plants How does a nervous system work? Reflexes: simple behavior Limitations of reflexes Connectome Multiple controllers for muscles Eye movements: a case study Many behaviors are social Chapter 2. Brain and Decision Making Utility theory Time and uncertainty Indecision: Buridan's ass Limitations of the utility theory Happiness Utility theory and the brain Meaning of action potentials Evolution of utilities Chapter 3. Artificial Intelligence Brain versus computer Will computers outperform human brains Synapse vs. transistor Hardware vs. software AI on Mars Is Sojourner still alive? Autonomous AI AI and utilities Robot society and swarm intelligence Chapter 4. Self-replicating machine Self-replicating machines Natural history of self-replicating machines Multi-talented proteins Multicellular organisms Brain evolution Evolution and Development Chapter 5. Brain and Genes Division of labor and delegation Principal-agent relationship Brain's incentive Chapter 6. Why learning? Diversity of learning Classical conditioning: a salivating dog Law of effect and instrumental conditioning: a curious cat Instrumental meets classical Instrumental and classical clash Knowledge: latent learning and place learning Chapter 7. Brain for Learning Neurons and learning Search for the engram Hippocampus and basal ganglia Reinforcement learning theory Pleasure chemical: dopamine Reinforcement learning and knowledge Regret and orbitofrontal cortex Regret neurons Chapter 8. Social Intelligence and Altruism Game theory Death of game theory? Iterative prisoner's dilemma Pavlov strategy Cooperating society Dark side of altruism Predicting the behaviors of others Recursive mind Social brain Default cognition: anthropomorphization Chapter 9. Intelligence and Self Paradox of self-knowledge Meta-cognition and meta-selection Cost of intelligence Chapter 10. Conclusion: Questions for Artificial Intelligence

About the Author :
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.

Review :
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. This book addresses two fundamental questions In this engaging book, celebrated neuroscientist Daeyeol Lee provides an accessible but authoritative introduction to the core sciences of mind and brain. Building on this, he offers a penetrating and novel argument concerning the differences between biological and artificial intelligence. The book not only contributes key points to one of the most important debates of our time, but also provides an entree into this discussion for both non-experts and experts alike. In this way, Lee helps to create a space for informed and constructive debate concerning the future of our technology, and our relationship with it." This ambitious book addresses the complex subject of intelligence. It is an account by a leader on the frontiers of neuroscience and psychology that is crackling with ideas and presented within a new framework of the critical role of intelligence in evolution. The author is engaged in the most up-to-date studies on the broad topic of decision neuroscience. His narrative shows amazing mastery of the essential topics, across a wide range of fields, including psychology, neuroscience, mathematics, probability theory, economic theory, evolution, philosophy, and artificial intelligence. These are all knitted together by a logical sequence of chapters and an engaging narrative style to give new insights into the neural basis of intelligence."