Machines Who Think: A Personal Inquiry Into the History and Prospects of Artificial IntelligencePamela McCorduck first went among the artificial intelligentsia when the field was fresh and new, and asked the scientists engaged in it what they were doing and why. She saw artificial intelligence as the scientific apotheosis of one of the most enduring, glorious, often amusing, and sometimes alarming, traditions of human culture: the endless fascination with artifacts that think. Machines Who Think was translated into many languages, became an international cult classic, and stayed in print for nearly twenty years. Now, Machines Who Think is back, along with an extended addition that brings the field up to date in the last quarter century, including its scientific and its public faces. McCorduck shows how, from a slightly dubious fringe science, artificial intelligence has moved slowly (though not always steadily) to a central place in our everyday lives, and how it will be even more crucial as the World Wide Web moves into its next generation. |
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Page 26
... already mentioned the abacus , which is a calculator of a kind . In 1642 Blaise Pascal built the first simple digital calculating machine ( digi- tal here means a machine with a finite set of states of being , as opposed to analog ...
... already mentioned the abacus , which is a calculator of a kind . In 1642 Blaise Pascal built the first simple digital calculating machine ( digi- tal here means a machine with a finite set of states of being , as opposed to analog ...
Page 209
... already converted . Taube and his book might be dismissed as a curiosity except for this : he seems to have been the first of a series of critics of the field whose emotions were as deeply engaged as their intellect . Fired by his anger ...
... already converted . Taube and his book might be dismissed as a curiosity except for this : he seems to have been the first of a series of critics of the field whose emotions were as deeply engaged as their intellect . Fired by his anger ...
Page 343
... already mentioned — that in trying to teach computers how to do things , AI researchers have had to be much more careful about defining how humans do things , discovering and naming tricks , processes , rules of thumb , which may not ...
... already mentioned — that in trying to teach computers how to do things , AI researchers have had to be much more careful about defining how humans do things , discovering and naming tricks , processes , rules of thumb , which may not ...
Contents
Beginnings | 1 |
From Energy to Information | 37 |
The Machinery of Wisdom | 59 |
Copyright | |
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Machines Who Think: A Personal Inquiry into the History and Prospects of ... Pamela McCorduck No preview available - 2004 |
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