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The Cognitive Computer
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Hardcover
Published January 1, 1984
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June 23, 2009
A futuristic manual on computers from 1984! Think "The Jetsons" is retro? Try the last 90-100 pages of this book. Computers that will teach us! Computers that will manage our money! Wow!
Still a pretty good explanation of what AI really means and the central philosophical and linguistic issues that AI researchers have to deal with. And the years have done something that Schank could not have done himself, which is to prove his contention that it isn't the machines anyway-- AI is not robots and cyborgs, but a mode of epistemological thinking, and most of it is done without the aid of computers. Which may seem a little counter-intuitive to some, but not after reading this book. Many of these issues have been reclassified "Cognitive Science" since this book's publication (possibly as an attempt to whitewash that stereotype), but this book doesn't need a new edition to be relevant, it just needs to be excerpted. Without all of the (now) silly talk about "THE FUTURE," there is something appealing about this book's relationship to computers that are now as remote from our idea of computers as to seem little more than abaci. As I said, it makes the point that AI is less of an engineering feat than a philosophical problem seem a little easier to understand.
Still a pretty good explanation of what AI really means and the central philosophical and linguistic issues that AI researchers have to deal with. And the years have done something that Schank could not have done himself, which is to prove his contention that it isn't the machines anyway-- AI is not robots and cyborgs, but a mode of epistemological thinking, and most of it is done without the aid of computers. Which may seem a little counter-intuitive to some, but not after reading this book. Many of these issues have been reclassified "Cognitive Science" since this book's publication (possibly as an attempt to whitewash that stereotype), but this book doesn't need a new edition to be relevant, it just needs to be excerpted. Without all of the (now) silly talk about "THE FUTURE," there is something appealing about this book's relationship to computers that are now as remote from our idea of computers as to seem little more than abaci. As I said, it makes the point that AI is less of an engineering feat than a philosophical problem seem a little easier to understand.
Displaying 1 of 1 review