# Intelligence Depends on the Rules That Wire the Brain by Steve Grand > “Our brains may end up as a collection of highly specialised 'modules', but the functioning of these modules is not the key to intelligence. The key is the deeper set of rules that enable a homogeneous pink goo to wire itself up into such a collection of specialised machines in the first place, merely by being exposed to the sensory world.” > **— Steve Grand**, *2004 Edge Annual Question, response passage* ## Sources and Context - **Original Edge response:** [Grand's Law — Steve Grand](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/10935) — a verbatim passage from Steve Grand's 2004 Annual Question response, expressing the author's position at the time. The linked response supplies its surrounding context. - **Local archival entry:** [[research/Edge 2004 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2004 Full Quotation Curation]] (EDGE2004-066). ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] - **Article:** [[articles/Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Organic-Synthetic Brain Atlas|The Organic-Synthetic Brain Atlas]] - **Article:** [[articles/Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta|Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Cognitive Architecture|Cognitive Architecture]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “Our brains may end up as a collection of highly specialised 'modules', but the functioning of these modules is not the key to intelligence. The key is the deeper set of rules that enable a homogeneous pink goo to wire itself up into such a collection of specialised machines in the first place, merely by being exposed to the sensory world.” — Steve Grand, 2004 Edge Annual Question https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-steve-grand-intelligence-depends-rules-that-wire ```