[3] In 2005 he co-founded Numenta, where he leads a team in efforts to reverse-engineer the neocortex and enable machine intelligence technology based on brain theory.

[5][6] His interest in pattern recognition for speech and text input to computers led him to enroll in the biophysics program at the University of California, Berkeley in 1986.

While there he patented a "pattern classifier" for handwritten text, but his PhD proposal on developing a theory of the neocortex was rejected.

[13] The book details the advances he and the Numenta team made in the development of their theory of how the brain understands the world and what it means to be intelligent.

He also served on the Advisory Board of the Secular Coalition for America where he has advised on the acceptance and inclusion of nontheism in American life.