## Metadata - Author: [[Jeff Hawkins and Sandra Blakeslee]] - Full Title: On Intelligence - Category: #books ## Highlights - Predictability is the very definition of reality. ([Location 1764](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B003J4VE5Y&location=1764)) - When most people say the word conscious, they are referring to the first category. “Were you conscious that you walked past me without saying hello?” “Were you conscious when you fell out of bed last night?” “You aren’t conscious when you sleep.” Some people say this form of consciousness is exactly the same as awareness. The two are close, but I don’t think awareness quite captures it correctly. I suggest this meaning of consciousness is synonymous with forming declarative memories. Declarative memories are memories that you can recall and talk about to someone else. You can express them verbally. ([Location 2673](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B003J4VE5Y&location=2673)) - Conceptually, imagination is rather simple. Patterns flow into each cortical area either from your senses or from lower areas of the memory hierarchy. Each cortical area creates predictions, which are sent back down the hierarchy. To imagine something, you merely let your predictions turn around and become inputs. ([Location 2739](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B003J4VE5Y&location=2739)) - Imagining requires a neural mechanism for turning a prediction into an input. In chapter 6 I proposed that cells in layer 6 are where precise prediction occurs. Cells in this layer project down to lower levels of the hierarchy, but they also project back up to the input cells in layer 4. Thus a region’s outputs can become its own inputs. ([Location 2750](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B003J4VE5Y&location=2750))