Impossible Minds: My Neurons, My Consciousness - Softcover

Aleksander, Igor

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1860940366 ISBN 13: 9781860940361

Publisher: Imperial College Press, 1996

Synopsis

Impossible Minds: My Neurons, My Consciousness has been written to satisfy the curiosity each and every one of us has about our own consciousness. It takes the view that the neurons in our heads are the source of consciousness and attempts to explain how this happens. Although it talks of neural networks, it explains what they are and what they do, in such a way that anyone may understand.This book is also a story. A story of a land where people think that they are automata without much in the way of consciousness, a story of cormorants and cliffs by the sea, a story of what it might be like to be a conscious machine…

About this title

Review

"... his book provides a popular account of the problem of consciousness. It is a personal view, from the perspective of a plain-speaking and clear-sighted engineer, articulated with all the optimism and confidence that engineers need to pursue the audacious goal of designing intelligent and conscious robots ... it is more of an 'ideas' book, and was fun to read. It should be an adventure and an inspiration for the human, if not yet the robotic, mind." William Clocksin Nature, 1996 "... no one could deny that Aleksander is doing a good job in this book of rehabilitating and making accessible some of the more unreasonable, some might say unfathomable, of AI's tenets: would recommend Aleksander's book as if nothing else, an excellent primer on matters of AI consciousness and philosophy." Peter Thomas New Scientist, 1996 "... reading 'Impossible Minds' is a lot of fun, both for the variety of topics and for the controversies it touches upon. For the beginner it is a good introduction to a fast-growing discipline; for every reader it is a good starting point of healthy argument with the author's views." International Journal of Neural Systems Apr 1997

Synopsis

Arguing that the neurons in our heads are the source of consciousness, this book attempts to explain how this happens. Although it talks of neural networks, it tries to explain what they are and what they do, in such a way that anyone may understand. This book is also a story. A story of a land where people think that they are automata without much in the way of consciousness, a story of cormorants and cliffs by the sea, a story of what it might be like to be a conscious machine...

Edition details

• Publisher: Imperial College Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1860940366
• ISBN 13: 9781860940361
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368