Principia Intellegentia (The Principles Governing Human and Machine Intelligence)

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Principia Intellegentia makes the case for considering the phenomenon of intelligence in humans to be entirely bound up with their individual ability to learn. It does this by setting out a high-level description of how humans learn, and then showing how this description accounts for many aspects of the human condition. In addition, Principia Intellegentia makes the case for applying this same description to the design of learning algorithms for automated computing machines, thereby addressing the greatest intellectual challenge of our age: the quest for artificial intelligence.

Principia Intellegentia makes the case for considering the phenomenon of intelligence in humans to be entirely bound up with their individual ability to learn. It does this by setting out a high-level description of how humans .earn. and then showing how this description accounts for many aspects the human condition. In addition, Principia Intellegentia makes the case for applying this same description to the design of learning algorithms automated computing machines, thereby addressing the greatest - -intellectual challenge of our age: the quest for artificial intelligence.

The book is a scientific monograph that describes original contributions - a wide variety of fields including neuroscience, psychology, sociology, intelligence, and the philosophy of science. However, it has been in a style that makes it accessible to the intelligent non-expert, such it may be classified as 'popular science'. This combination invites comparison with great works of mass appeal such as The Origin of The Golden Bough and The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

The original work described here is the result of extensive research undertaken in my spare time over the last 25 years. Much of this time has been spent in pursuing fundamental questions within the philosophy of science, in an attempt to formulate 'scientific method' as some kind of automatic procedure that could be undertaken by a computer. The discovery of just such a high-level description of learning has allowed the scope of research to be broadened to include the analysis of human _earning behaviors. Rapid progress in this latter programmed has meant Principia Intellegentia focusses primarily on learning in humans, with machine learning as the secondary theme.

I am a research scientist working for the UK government. Since leaving university in 1987 I have been in continuous full-time employment in a number of government or privatized laboratories, undertaking scientific 7esearch in a wide range of applications, the common disciplines being 7hysics, mathematics, engineering and computing. I am the sole author of is book and all of the original research reported in it, none of which has been funded by my employers, past or present. There is no conflict of Merest or potential breach of confidence associated with this publication.

Concerning my repeated claim of originality: I have been engaged in scientific research for long enough to know that "there is now new thing under the sun". Accordingly it would not surprise me in the slightest if the publication of this book triggers a number of counter-claims that one or some or all of the insights that I present as original have in fact been extant in the literature for a number of years. It is possible. All I can say is that my search for intellectual precursors has been deep and thorough, and all those that have been uncovered have been duly acknowledged in the text. The rest, I believe, is original.

I am profoundly grateful to my family and friends who have supported and encouraged me during this quarter-century gestation that has been both exhilarating and excruciating in equal measure.

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