Read more
Summarizes and illuminates two decades of research
Gathering important papers by both philosophers and scientists, this collection illuminates the central themes that have arisen during the last two decades of work on the conceptual foundations of artificial intelligence and cognitive science. Each volume begins with a comprehensive introduction that places the coverage in a broader perspective and links it with material in the companion volumes. The collection is of interest in many disciplines including computer science, linguistics, biology, information science, psychology, neuroscience, iconography, and philosophy.
Examines initial efforts and the latest controversies
The topics covered range from the bedrock assumptions of the computational approach to understanding the mind, to the more recent debates concerning cognitive architectures, all the way to the latest developments in robotics, artificial life, and dynamical systems theory. The collection first examines the lineage of major research programs, beginning with the basic idea of machine intelligence itself, then focuses on specific aspects of thought and intelligence, highlighting the much-discussed issue of consciousness, the equally important, but less densely researched issue of emotional response, and the more traditionally philosophical topic of language and meaning.
Provides a gamut of perspectives
The editors have included several articles that challenge crucial elements of the familiar research program of cognitive science, as well as important writings whose previous circulation has been limited. Within each volume the papers are organized to reflect a variety of research programs and issues. The substantive introductions that accompany each volume further organize the material and provide readers with a working sense of the issues and the connection between articles.
List of contents
Introduction, Machine Intelligence: The Very Idea, Computing Machinery and Intelligence, Semantic Engines: An Introduction to Mind Design, Mind, Brains, and Programs, The Symbol Grounding Problem, Could a Machine Think?, On Implementing a Computation, Psychology, Biology, and Levels of Explanation, You Can't Play 20 Questions with Nature and Win: Projective Comments on the Papers of this Symposium, Artificial Intelligence: A Personal View, Real Brains and Artificial Intelligence, Making a Mind Versus Modeling the Brain: Artificial Intelligence Back at a Branchpoint, Information, Computation, and Representation, What Is Information?, When Is Information Explicitly Represented?, Machines and the Mental, Ways of Establishing Harmony, Acknowledgments
About the author
Andy Clark, Toribio
Summary
Beginning with a seminal paper by Alan Turing, this volume presents the ideas behind the vision of mentality as computation and some critiques of that vision. It then clarifies the nature of the initial research and discusses the concepts of computation, symbol, information and representation.
