Love, Hate & Us

Marvin Minsky -- one of the fathers of computer science and cofounder of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT -- gives a revolutionary answer to the age-old question: "How does the mind work?" Minsky brilliantly portrays the mind as a "society" of tiny components that are themselves mindless. Mirroring his theory, Minsky boldly casts __The Society of Mind__ as an intellectual puzzle whose pieces are assembled along the way. Each chapter -- on a self-contained page -- corresponds to a piece in the puzzle. As the pages turn, a unified theory of the mind emerges, like a mosaic. Ingenious, amusing, and easy to read, __The Society of Mind__ is an adventure in imagination. **Amazon.com Review For some artificial intelligence researchers, Minsky's book is too far removed from hard science to be useful. For others, the high-level approach of __The Society of Mind__ makes it a gold mine of ideas waiting to be implemented. The author, one of the undisputed fathers of the discipline of AI, sets out to provide an abstract model of how the human mind really works. His thesis is that our minds consist of a huge aggregation of tiny mini-minds or agents that have evolved to perform highly specific tasks. Most of these agents lack the attributes we think of as intelligence and are severely limited in their ability to intercommunicate. Yet rational thought, feeling, and purposeful action result from the interaction of these basic components. Minsky's theory does not suggest a specific implementation for building intelligent machines. Still, this book may prove to be one of the most influential for the future of AI.**

Marvin Minsky — one of the fathers of computer science and cofounder of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT — gives a revolutionary answer to the age-old question: "How does the mind work?"

Minsky brilliantly portrays the mind as a "society" of tiny components that are themselves mindless. Mirroring his theory, Minsky boldly casts The Society of Mind as an intellectual puzzle whose pieces are assembled along the way. Each chapter — on a self-contained page — corresponds to a piece in the puzzle. As the pages turn, a unified theory of the mind emerges, like a mosaic. Ingenious, amusing, and easy to read, The Society of Mind is an adventure in imagination.

Addresses the age old question: How does the mind work? Minsky describes the mind as a "society" that arises out of ever-smaller agents.

An Authority On Artificial Intelligence Introduces A Theory That Explores The Workings Of The Human Mind And The Mysteries Of Thought. Prologue -- Wholes And Parts -- Conflict And Compromise -- The Self -- Individuality -- Insight And Introspection -- Problems And Goals -- A Theory Of Memory -- Summaries -- Papert's Principle -- The Shape Of Space -- Learning Meaning -- Seeing And Believing -- Reformulation -- Consciousness And Memory -- Emotion -- Development -- Reasoning -- Words And Ideas -- Context And Ambiguity -- Trans-frames -- Expression -- Comparisons -- Frames -- Frame-arrays -- Language-frames -- Censors And Jokes -- The Mind And The World -- The Realms Of Thought -- Mental Models. Marvin Minsky. Includes Index. Glossary And Bibliography: P. [326]-332.