A Brief History of Intelligence

A Brief History of Intelligence is the book 吴涛 strongly recommends in 71. 编程的内燃机时代. The episode uses it to connect biological intelligence, nervous systems, reinforcement learning, simulation, mentalizing, and current AI models.

Source Position

• The book is presented as one of the episode’s two strongest recommendations, alongside trying Immersive Translate.
• The hosts use it to frame intelligence as an evolutionary path from simple stimulus-response behavior toward simulation and modeling of other minds.
• 吴涛 asks ChatGPT where it would place itself in that progression; the model’s answer is summarized as being closer to simulation than genuine mentalizing.
• The discussion connects the book to World Models and to the episode’s caution that fluent model self-description is not the same thing as demonstrated understanding.

Connections

• ChatGPT - model used for the self-placement example.
• World Models - adjacent technical concept around simulation and internal environment modeling.
• Human Judgment Under AI - humans still need to interpret whether a model’s explanation means understanding.
• Second Renaissance - broader learning and self-cultivation frame around AI-era education.