If you look at the history of big obstacles in understanding our world, there's usually an intuitive assumption underlying them that's wrong.

Robotics stepped in with the financial backing and manufacturing expertise to bring the Palm Pilot to market in early 1996. They developed a floating air cushion platform that was used for waterfront concerts. Neuroscience
After graduating from Cornell in June 1979 he read a special issue of Scientific American on the brain in which Francis Crick lamented the lack of a grand theory explaining how the brain functions.

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Hawkins also serves on the Advisory Board of the Secular Coalition for America and offers advice to the coalition on the acceptance and inclusion of nontheism in American life. Jeffrey Hawkins (born June 1 1957 in Huntington New York) is the founder of Palm Computing (where he invented the Palm Pilot) and Handspring (where he invented the Treo).