Minds and Machines

by Alan Ross Anderson

Softback, ex-library, with usual stamps and markings, in fair all round condition suitable as a study copy only.

Genres: Science

114 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

Reviews

[Brian Powell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of essays on the mechanical prospects of mind are a small sampling from mid-century thought on artificial intelligence. Dated, sure, but no doubt an exciting subject. Except that the collection is mostly lifeless. Turing's seminal work on the Imitation Game is the headliner, but there's frankly not enough to segue from. The rebuttal by Gunderson is to the point and fairly convincing, centering on the argument that Turing's robot would only ever succeed in *emulating* a thinking being. Indeed, Turing's essay doesn't adequately address this concern, but you can't help but think that Turing, if he were able to offer a counter, would easily sidestep this criticism. Then there's Lucas's renowned claim that Godel's theorem precludes thinking machines, since brains are capable of generating unprovable theorems in any formal system, and hence, must be "outside" all formal systems. This is, of course, entirely unfounded and Lucas's evident bias weakens one's confidence that he's carefully covered all the bases; that, and a deeply sexist (probably even for the 60's) comment towards the end of the essay (regarding the claim that only women and formal systems can be "inconsistent") really put me off to this dude.

There's not much else to round out this collection; an essay by Putnam on the mind/brain problem was mildly interesting, and the piece by Ziff was shockingly thin and came already fully infused with a presumption that materialism is false (e.g. only living things can think, because, duh!).

Overall, this is a vibrant subject and its early pioneers were intrepid researchers. This volume, however, carries little luster and ultimately fails to frame a provocative theme.

[Pprtti Saariluoma]

Very relevant even today