In the introduction to the book, Hawkins says he makes many gross oversimplifications for the lay reader, so maybe this is one of them. He seems well versed in neuroscience research, so I would be surprised if he truly believes the simple model.
As someone who is quite versed in Neuroscience and AI, and who has read Hawkins’ papers, I am still waiting to see the gross simplifications be filled with depth.
He does go into more detail than what’s written, but it is more sidestepping rather than resolving the gross simplifications.
