How to Build a Mind: Toward Machines with Imagination (Maps of the Mind) - Hardcover

Aleksander, Igor

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0231120125 ISBN 13: 9780231120128

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2001

Synopsis

Igor Aleksander heads a major British team that has applied engineering principles to the understanding of the human brain and has built several pioneering machines, culminating in MAGNUS, which he calls a machine with imagination. When he asks it (in words) to produce an image of a banana that is blue with red spots, the image appears on the screen in seconds.

The idea of such an apparently imaginative, even conscious machine seems heretical and its advocates are often accused of sensationalism, arrogance, or philosophical ignorance. Part of the problem, according to Aleksander, is that consciousness remains ill-defined.

Interweaving anecdotes from his own life and research with imagined dialogues between historical figures--including Descartes, Locke, Hume, Kant, Wittgenstein, Francis Crick, and Steven Pinker--Aleksander leads readers toward an understanding of consciousness. He shows not only how the latest work with artificial neural systems suggests that an artificial form of consciousness is possible but also that its design would clarify many of the puzzles surrounding the murky concept of consciousness itself. The book also looks at the presentation of "self" in robots, the learning of language, and the nature of emotion, will, instinct, and feelings.

About this title

Review

Of all genres of science book, none has generated so many works whose titles promise so much but which deliver so little as those devoted to consciousness. In recent years, scholars from disciplines from philosophy to neuropharmacology have hit the bestseller lists with books bearing such peremptory titles as Consciousness Explained--despite the fact they do no such thing. Now Igor Aleksander, Professor of Neural Engineering Systems at Imperial College London, has offered his own take on the subject with How to Build a Mind. And with an international reputation for actually building "intelligent" machines rather than idly talking about them, Aleksander would seem ideally qualified to write a book with something new to say on consciousness. Indeed, in the opening chapter he states that he wants to "avoid the yawns and the pointless late-night conversations" the subject usually engenders. Alas, How to Build a Mind is yet another case of too much bun and too little beef. A mishmash of autobiography, historical overview and disjointed opinion, interspersed with imagined conversations with philosophers, it adds very little to the consciousness debate. This is all the more disappointing given that Aleksander has arguably come closer to achieving the goal of his book's title than anyone else through Magnus, a computer program he devised which--in some sense at least--is aware of its existence, its surroundings and shows signs of exercising free will. Readers will find only a lacklustre discussion of this fascinating work in this book, which--perhaps uniquely in this field - radically undersells the author's expertise and achievements. --Robert Matthews

Review

A worthy trip for anybody who's wondered... just how the brain does it.--Carl T. Hall "San Francisco Chronicle "

This far-ranging book should interest readers at varying levels, from engineers and computer scientists to science fiction and psychology buffs.--Hilary Burton, Lawrence Livermore National Lab, California "Library Journal "

Igor Aleksander has spent most of his life in the frustrating attempt to develop intelligent machines. In doing so, he has been at the forefront of the Artificial Intelligence community for over four decades. How to Build a Mind is simultaneously a history of AI and an intellectual biography. Since designing thinking machines requires not just the ability to write computer programs but also an understanding of what we mean by 'consciousness, ' 'mind, ' and 'intelligence, ' How to Build a Mind also takes up an inquiry into the history of philosophical explanations of those terms, from Miletus to Ludwig Wittgenstein.--Tech Directions

Neatly illustrates how the field of artificial intelligence has mostly been leaping from enthusiasm to enthusiasm without any deep theoretical consideration of human brains or human consciousness.... Written with warm amusement.--The Guardian (London)

Edition details

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0231120125
• ISBN 13: 9780231120128
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 192