[joe_the_user]

I don't think Hawkins is necessarily saying the neocortex is the only part of the brain that's interesting to understand.

I think the main argument is that there is reason to think that there is a single "neo-cortical algorithm", that it is somewhat simple compared to the massive complexity of the brain as a whole and that if you can understand this algorithm, there will be massive payoffs.

That argument too might be misguided but it seem like a pretty focused idea for going from brain to artificial intelligence (a problem where one would expect that simplifying approaching would be quite necessary).

I'm more doubtful of his idea that the neocortex is primarily about prediction. I suspect that's only one aspect.