The human experience is like being the driver behind the wheel of a self-driving vehicle doing 90% of the driving.

Chapter 1- An Introduction To The Self-Driving You

Imagine being behind the wheel of a brand-new self-driving vehicle sometime in the future. It is not fully autonomous, but the car does 90 percent of the driving. At the same time, you are the driver, the supervisor overseeing it all, who can take the wheel the remaining 10 percent of the time when needed. […]

We have 86 billion neurons that serve as the brain's signaling units. There are many different types, but generally, they all have an input, a cell body, and an output cable.

Chapter 2- What It Is Like To Be A Neuron

Humanity’s greatest challenge is to understand how the brain works.1 Neuroscientists, aided by discoveries in neuroscience and artificial intelligence, are inching closer to this answer each day. While the brain’s full functionality remains a mystery, we have enough information to form a general concept. This concept helps us understand how the brain, as a living […]

Support cells make up almost half of the population of cells in the brain and act as network maintenance crew. Broadband installers are important crew members as they improve the speed at which signals travel on output cables that fire the most by adding myelin.

Chapter 3- What It Is Like To Be A Support Cell

Our neurons are highly interconnected computers that receive, process, and transmit electrochemical impulses. The output cables run here and there, connecting every neuron in some way to form an intricate network that supports the communication of 86 billion computers. Such an extensive, complex network needs help to function properly; that is where the other 85 […]

Ants are single nodes in one extensive colony network. A single colony intelligence emerges when they all communicate information within the network.

Chapter 4- Getting To Know Networks – Part 1

Our brain is similar to an internet service provider with 86 billion computers connected to a network. Each neuron processes information, receiving and sending signals to many others over a labyrinth of output cables connecting it all together. Every computer communicates over these cables, forming complex networks supporting all the signals they transmit. Our 85 […]

An example of the general idea around how stacked layers of neurons in the brain would look.

Chapter 4- Getting To Know Networks – Part 2

The human brain is a colony of neurons working collectively as a single network. It is similar to how a network for an internet service provider connects millions of computers. Our brain has 86 billion of them connected in its network. The difference with ours is that all of the computers work cooperatively as a […]

A hypothetical image recognition network that determines whether an image is a cat or dog based on the pattern it produces.

Chapter 5- How Artificial Networks Work

Artificial intelligence has come a long way since its humble beginnings in the 1940s, with recent discoveries catapulting it into the mainstream.1 The goal of scientists and engineers behind it all has always been to build an intelligent machine equal to a human. That has been the driving force behind all the advancements in AI. […]

An artificial network learned to play the Atari game Breakout by playing.

Chapter 6- How Artificial Networks Learn

Modern technology owes itself to traditional rules-based programming.1  Everything from Microsoft Word, Call of Duty, Minecraft, Instagram, smartphone apps, and websites use hardcoded step-by-step instructions to work.2 Coders write a list of commands, line after line, in a computer language, telling the program exactly what to do. Each one has thousands of lines of code […]

Chapter 7 – The Life Of A Human Network

Neural networks have appeared in all life outside of sponges for the last 635-540 million years. They first appeared in tiny worm-like creatures and have been progressing in complexity through different worm, insect, fish, amphibian, reptile, bird, and mammal species ever since. Each animal category is like a different network class and type, marking a […]