Chad Vavra

Intelligence is a lofty word, it suggests some level greater than where most of us think we are or at least equal to and greater than a significant population. Intelligence really isn’t anything more than an ability to recall sequences, the more you can recall, the faster you can recall them, the more intelligence you have.

Jeff Hawkins’ On Intelligence is my source of this insight into the human brain. The goal of On Intelligence is to define a framework to build intelligent software, my goal is to use the understanding in the framework to design interfaces optimized for intelligence. To understand that you first have to understand how the brain processes sequences of stored patterns.

In his book, Mr. Hawkins explains that our cortex is made up of regions that form memories when sequences are presented in a way that the region can predict what will happen next. When the region interprets a sequence it knows, it passes that information up to the next region for further processing.

In his book Hawkins uses the example of memorizing the Gettysburg address. First phonemes are processed into words and passed to the region that knows phrases. The phrases are then processed and passed up to the next region and so on. The higher in the process the more stable the sequences.

This works in reverse too. If you want recite the address your cortex recalls the phrases, sends them down to be recalled as words, phonemes and finally to another part of the brain called the motor cortex which controls the muscles the you use to speak. What’s really cool is that you use the same sequences at the higher levels to speak, write, etc. Another, and possibly the most important, thing to know is that sequences require an element of time. For the purpose of interaction design time is created as your eye saccades ( or rapidly moves) across the screen.

Now you know how your brain works, in Part 2 I will wax on about how to apply it to design.

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