Thinking Computers and Virtual Persons

Thinking Computers and Virtual Persons PDF

Author: Eric Dietrich

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2014-05-10

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 1483217655

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Thinking Computers and Virtual Persons: Essays on the Intentionality of Machines explains how computations are meaningful and how computers can be cognitive agents like humans. This book focuses on the concept that cognition is computation. Organized into four parts encompassing 13 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the analogy between intentionality and phlogiston, the 17th-century principle of burning. This text then examines the objection to computationalism that it cannot prevent arbitrary attributions of content to the various data structures and representations involved in a computational process. Other chapters consider that the notion of original intentionality is incoherent. This book argues as well that the only way to build an intelligent machine is to build a neural network. The final chapter claims that an entire theoretical framework in cognitive psychology is incompatible with the view that human brains are computers of some sort. This book is a valuable resource for cognitive scientists.

What to Think About Machines That Think

What to Think About Machines That Think PDF

Author: John Brockman

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2015-10-06

Total Pages: 576

ISBN-13: 0062425668

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Weighing in from the cutting-edge frontiers of science, today’s most forward-thinking minds explore the rise of “machines that think.” Stephen Hawking recently made headlines by noting, “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.” Others, conversely, have trumpeted a new age of “superintelligence” in which smart devices will exponentially extend human capacities. No longer just a matter of science-fiction fantasy (2001, Blade Runner, The Terminator, Her, etc.), it is time to seriously consider the reality of intelligent technology, many forms of which are already being integrated into our daily lives. In that spirit, John Brockman, publisher of Edge. org (“the world’s smartest website” – The Guardian), asked the world’s most influential scientists, philosophers, and artists one of today’s most consequential questions: What do you think about machines that think?

Thinking Machines and the Philosophy of Computer Science

Thinking Machines and the Philosophy of Computer Science PDF

Author: Jordi Vallverdú

Publisher: IGI Global

Published: 2010-01-01

Total Pages: 461

ISBN-13: 1616920157

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"This book offers a high interdisciplinary exchange of ideas pertaining to the philosophy of computer science, from philosophical and mathematical logic to epistemology, engineering, ethics or neuroscience experts and outlines new problems that arise with new tools"--Provided by publisher.

Cognitive Dynamics

Cognitive Dynamics PDF

Author: Eric Dietrich

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2014-03-05

Total Pages: 431

ISBN-13: 1317778189

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Recent work in cognitive science, much of it placed in opposition to a computational view of the mind, has argued that the concept of representation and theories based on that concept are not sufficient to explain the details of cognitive processing. These attacks on representation have focused on the importance of context sensitivity in cognitive processing, on the range of individual differences in performance, and on the relationship between minds and the bodies and environments in which they exist. In each case, models based on traditional assumptions about representation have been assumed to be too rigid to account for the effects of these factors on cognitive processing. In place of a representational view of mind, other formalisms and methodologies, such as nonlinear differential equations (or dynamical systems) and situated robotics, have been proposed as better explanatory tools for understanding cognition. This book is based on the notion that, while new tools and approaches for understanding cognition are valuable, representational approaches do not need to be abandoned in the course of constructing new models and explanations. Rather, models that incorporate representation are quite compatible with the kinds of complex situations being modeled with the new methods. This volume illustrates the power of this explicitly representational approach--labeled "cognitive dynamics"--in original essays by prominent researchers in cognitive science. Each chapter explores some aspect of the dynamics of cognitive processing while still retaining representations as the centerpiece of the explanations of the key phenomena. These chapters serve as an existence proof that representation is not incompatible with the dynamics of cognitive processing. The book is divided into sections on foundational issues about the use of representation in cognitive science, the dynamics of low level cognitive processes (such as visual and auditory perception and simple lexical priming), and the dynamics of higher cognitive processes (including categorization, analogy, and decision making).

Object Thinking

Object Thinking PDF

Author: David West

Publisher: Microsoft Press

Published: 2004-02-11

Total Pages: 363

ISBN-13: 0735637512

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In OBJECT THINKING, esteemed object technologist David West contends that the mindset makes the programmer—not the tools and techniques. Delving into the history, philosophy, and even politics of object-oriented programming, West reveals how the best programmers rely on analysis and conceptualization—on thinking—rather than formal process and methods. Both provocative and pragmatic, this book gives form to what’s primarily been an oral tradition among the field’s revolutionary thinkers—and it illustrates specific object-behavior practices that you can adopt for true object design and superior results. Gain an in-depth understanding of: Prerequisites and principles of object thinking. Object knowledge implicit in eXtreme Programming (XP) and Agile software development. Object conceptualization and modeling. Metaphors, vocabulary, and design for object development. Learn viable techniques for: Decomposing complex domains in terms of objects. Identifying object relationships, interactions, and constraints. Relating object behavior to internal structure and implementation design. Incorporating object thinking into XP and Agile practice.

Where were you?

Where were you? PDF

Author: Jan H. van Bemmel

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2015-04-22

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 1329086570

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The author is completely perplexed by the wonders in this world and far beyond. At the same time he realizes that this impressive beauty often goes together with incredible human and animal suffering and misery. His reflections are summarized in four different chapters: on Nature, the Universe, Intelligence, and the ultimate question: Why we are here. Of course, his answers are very personal and far from complete. Perhaps, more questions are asked than answers can ever be given. The material for his reflections was borrowed from the scientific literature, his own research, mainly in the biomedical field, his great interest in astronomy and cosmology, and from books of wisdom. The main source for his reflections are the different writings of prophets, historians and poets in the Bible.

Androids, Cyborgs, and Robots in Contemporary Culture and Society

Androids, Cyborgs, and Robots in Contemporary Culture and Society PDF

Author: Thompson, Steven John

Publisher: IGI Global

Published: 2017-09-13

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 1522529748

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Mankind’s dependence on artificial intelligence and robotics is increasing rapidly as technology becomes more advanced. Finding a way to seamlessly intertwine these two worlds will help boost productivity in society and aid in a variety of ways in modern civilization. Androids, Cyborgs, and Robots in Contemporary Culture and Society is an essential scholarly resource that delves into the current issues, methodologies, and trends relating to advanced robotic technology in the modern world. Featuring relevant topics that include STEM technologies, brain-controlled androids, biped robots, and media perception, this publication is ideal for engineers, academicians, students, and researchers that would like to stay current with the latest developments in the world of evolving robotics.

The Turing Test

The Turing Test PDF

Author: James H. Moor

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 9401001057

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This book gives the most comprehensive, in depth and contemporary assessment of this classic topic in artificial intelligence. It is the first to elaborate in such detail the numerous conflicting points of view on many aspects of this multifaceted, controversial subject. It offers new insights into Turing's own interpretation and is essential reading for research on the Turing test and for teaching undergraduate and graduate students in philosophy, computer science, and cognitive science.

Views Into the Chinese Room

Views Into the Chinese Room PDF

Author: John Preston

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 428

ISBN-13: 0198250576

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Featuring 19 specially written essays by leading scientists and philosophers, this volume is a state-of-the-art work on the foundations of cognitive science.

Law, Human Agency and Autonomic Computing

Law, Human Agency and Autonomic Computing PDF

Author: Mireille Hildebrandt

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2011-08-26

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 1136807667

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Law, Human Agency and Autonomic Computing interrogates the legal implications of the notion and experience of human agency implied by the emerging paradigm of autonomic computing, and the socio-technical infrastructures it supports. The development of autonomic computing and ambient intelligence – self-governing systems – challenge traditional philosophical conceptions of human self-constitution and agency, with significant consequences for the theory and practice of constitutional self-government. Ideas of identity, subjectivity, agency, personhood, intentionality, and embodiment are all central to the functioning of modern legal systems. But once artificial entities become more autonomic, and less dependent on deliberate human intervention, criteria like agency, intentionality and self-determination, become too fragile to serve as defining criteria for human subjectivity, personality or identity, and for characterizing the processes through which individual citizens become moral and legal subjects. Are autonomic – yet artificial – systems shrinking the distance between (acting) subjects and (acted upon) objects? How ‘distinctively human’ will agency be in a world of autonomic computing? Or, alternatively, does autonomic computing merely disclose that we were never, in this sense, ‘human’ anyway? A dialogue between philosophers of technology and philosophers of law, this book addresses these questions, as it takes up the unprecedented opportunity that autonomic computing and ambient intelligence offer for a reassessment of the most basic concepts of law.