Traces the history of the struggles of scientists to create a machine which could actually reproduce the thought process of human beings

Reinventing Man: The Robot Becomes Reality

Science & Math

Aleksander, Igor.

Technology

Henry Holt Co.

Describes the efforts of researchers to make a computer which thinks like a human being

Thinking Machines: Search for Artificial Intelligence

Computers & Technology

Burnett, Piers

Computer Science

Oxford University Press

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.

How to Build a Mind: Toward Machines with Imagination

Columbia University Press

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

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.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 concepts of consciousness itself. How to Build a Mind also examines the presentation of "self" in robots, the learning of language, and the nature of emotion, will, instinct, and feelings.

How to Build a Mind (Maps of the Mind)

Columbia Univ. Pr.

181p orange hardback with gilt lettering to spine, illustrated jacket well preserved, pages clean and unmarked

How to build a mind

Weidenfeld&Nicolson

Thinking machines: The search for artificial intelligence

Distributed by Random House

Describes the efforts of researchers to make a computer which thinks like a human being

Thinking Machines

KNOPF

I. ALEKSANDER Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics BruneI University, England The three key words that appear in the title of this book need some clarification. First, how far does the word robot reach in the context of indus trial automation? There is an argument maintaining that this range is not fixed, but increases with advancing technology. The most limited definition of the robot is also the earliest. The history is worth following because it provides a convincing backdrop to the central point of this book: vision is likely to epitomize the technolo gical advance, having the greatest effect in enlarging the definition and range of activity of robots. In the mid 1950s it was foreseen that a purely mechanical arm-like device could be used to move objects between two fixed locations. This was seen to be cost-effective only if the task was to remain fixed for some time. The need to change tasks and therefore the level of programmability of the robot was a key issue in the broadening of robot activities. Robots installed in industry in the early 1960s derived their programmability from a device called apinboard. Ver tical wires were energized sequentially in time, while horizontal wires, when energized, would trigger off elementary actions in the manipulator arm. The task of reprogramming was a huge one, as pins had to be reinserted in the board, connecting steps in time with robot actions.

Artificial vision for robots

Engineering & Transportation

Engineering

Chapman & Hall

Since the first edition of this book was published, much has happened in the field of neural networks. The authors reflect these changes by updating and introducing material on new developments including neurocontrol, pattern analysis and dynamic systems. This book should be useful for undergraduate students of neural networks.

Introduction to Neural Computing

Van Nostrand Reinhold Company

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