A Brief History of Intelligence
A Brief History of Intelligence by Max Bennettby Max Bennett
Shares rank 26 of 50 popular science books by recommenders
Recommended as an accessible book on how intelligence and the brain evolved, and one that changes how readers think about AI and AGI.
Recommended as an accessible book on how intelligence and the brain evolved, and one that changes how readers think about AI and AGI.
4 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 4
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 4 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Changes thinking about AI
“shifted my thinking completely about AI and how far we are from AGI”
Comment from 26 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” Accessible introduction to the topic
“is a good, accessible book on this topic”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “NanoGPT Slowrun: 10x Data Efficiency with Infinite Compute” Teaches a lot about the brain
“I like it so far, I've learned a lot about the brain”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?”
Other popular science books people recommend
The four most recommended other popular science books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gödel, Escher, Bachby Douglas Hofstadter | 47 | 10 | 82% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Thinking, Fast and Slowby Daniel Kahneman | 17 | 13 | 57% | 9 | — | — |
| Thinking in Systemsby Donella Meadows | 17 | 0 | 100% | 8 | — | Approved |
| The Selfish Geneby Richard Dawkins | 14 | 5 | 74% | 8 | — | Approved |
| A Brief History of Intelligenceby Max BennettThis page | 4 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
All 4 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the amazing Max Bennett book: A brief history of intelligence”
“is a good, accessible book on this topic”
“I like it so far, I've learned a lot about the brain”
“shifted my thinking completely about AI and how far we are from AGI”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.