Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface
- Prologue
- 1 GPS: The Origins of AI
- 2 Deep Blue: Supercomputing AI
- 3 Cyborgs: Cybernetic AI
- 4 Cyc: Knowledge-Intensive AI
- 5 Coach and Chef: Case-Based AI
- 6 Language Learning: Connectionist AI
- 7 Mathematical Models: Dynamical AI
- 8 Cog: Neorobotic AI
- 9 Copycat: Analogical AI
- Epilogue
- Appendix A Minimax and Alpha-Beta Pruning
- Appendix B An Introduction to Connectionism
- Appendix C The Language Acquisition Debate
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Author Index
- Subject Index
Epilogue
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface
- Prologue
- 1 GPS: The Origins of AI
- 2 Deep Blue: Supercomputing AI
- 3 Cyborgs: Cybernetic AI
- 4 Cyc: Knowledge-Intensive AI
- 5 Coach and Chef: Case-Based AI
- 6 Language Learning: Connectionist AI
- 7 Mathematical Models: Dynamical AI
- 8 Cog: Neorobotic AI
- 9 Copycat: Analogical AI
- Epilogue
- Appendix A Minimax and Alpha-Beta Pruning
- Appendix B An Introduction to Connectionism
- Appendix C The Language Acquisition Debate
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Author Index
- Subject Index
Summary
THE FUTURE OF AI
Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.
– Democritus (ca. 460–370 BCE)Criticism is not as common in science and engineering as it is in art and literature. Scientists review each other's writings, write commentaries on them, or try to replicate a reported experiment, but they rarely criticize each other's work in the sense intended here – that is, in the sense of a reflexive evaluation of background assumptions, biases, and principles, and an examination of the way they guide the creation of theories, models, and technical systems. Traditionally, scientists leave such criticism to “outsiders” – philosophers, sociologists, or even to religious or political ideologues. This is not to say that science totally lacks critical practices. Scientists also have dedicated venues – societies, workshops, conferences, committees, panels, journals, as well as very rigorously established procedures of peer review – whose function is to keep things in constant check, presumably mitigating the need for self-criticism. Nevertheless, it is not common to find reflexive accounts of science from within the scientific community. Science changes, but the driving engine of change is seldom an explicitly critical encounter on the part of scientists themselves.
Contrary to this received tradition in science, the present work conducts a critical assessment of a scientific and technical field, Artificial Intelligence (AI), from a constructive standpoint that aims to contribute, rather than refute.
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- Information
- Artificial DreamsThe Quest for Non-Biological Intelligence, pp. 309 - 334Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008