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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 65
Page 282
... answering device ? It's probably because one of our rules of thumb about the nature of intelligence is that if we receive a sen- sible answer to a question , then we can assume that we've been understood , and understanding is essential ...
... answering device ? It's probably because one of our rules of thumb about the nature of intelligence is that if we receive a sen- sible answer to a question , then we can assume that we've been understood , and understanding is essential ...
Page 289
... answering machines . Data had to be carefully organized . Language had to be both syntactically and semantically analyzed . Matching was the key operation allowing a program to deter- mine whether a particular answer was possible or ...
... answering machines . Data had to be carefully organized . Language had to be both syntactically and semantically analyzed . Matching was the key operation allowing a program to deter- mine whether a particular answer was possible or ...
Page 394
... answers , this may be because the question is ultimately meaningless or at least unanswerable , but it may also be because an adequate answer requires a powerful analytical apparatus . " The mind - body problem , he says , is the latter ...
... answers , this may be because the question is ultimately meaningless or at least unanswerable , but it may also be because an adequate answer requires a powerful analytical apparatus . " The mind - body problem , he says , is the latter ...
Contents
Beginnings | 1 |
From Energy to Information | 37 |
The Machinery of Wisdom | 59 |
Copyright | |
12 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Machines Who Think: A Personal Inquiry into the History and Prospects of ... Pamela McCorduck No preview available - 2004 |
Common terms and phrases
Allen Newell answer artificial intelligence artificial-intelligence asked automata Babbage believe brain called Carnegie chess chess-playing Claude Shannon cognitive complex computer science DARPA Dartmouth Conference DENDRAL developed Dreyfus Dreyfus's early Edward Feigenbaum effort engineering example experience fact Feigenbaum field formal gence goals Herbert Simon Hubert Dreyfus human idea information-processing intellectual intelligent behavior interesting John McCarthy John von Neumann kind knowledge laboratory later learning Logic Theorist look Marvin Minsky mathematics McCulloch means mechanical mind move natural language Neumann Newell and Simon notion organization paper philosophers play problem solving proposed psychology published puter questions RAND reason robot scientific scientists seems sense Seymour Papert Shakey Shannon Shaw simulating social sort Stanford symbolic talk tasks theorem theory there's things thinking machine thought tion trying Turing Turing's understanding University Weizenbaum Wiener write