The Cambridge Quintet: A Work of Scientific Speculation

New
Paperback
1998
$16.26

By 1949, the idea of duplicating human thought processes in a computer was starting to surface, as the outgrowth of code-breaking work done by Alan Turing and others in Britain during the Second World War.
This ingenious work of speculative scientific fiction reconstructs what might have been said during the animated conversation flowing around Snow's rooms that fateful in Cambridge.
The quintet's debate anticipates all of the basic questions which have surrounded artificial intelligence in the fifty years since. Can a machine think or merely process information? Is the brain simply a symbol-processing machine, as Turing suggests, and if so, what is the nature of meaning? Can there be, as Wittgenstein proposes, no thought without language, and no language without the social interaction of human beings?

Synopsis

By 1949, the idea of duplicating human thought processes in a computer was starting to surface, as the outgrowth of code-breaking work done by Alan Turing and others in Britain during the Second World War.

This ingenious work of speculative scientific fiction reconstructs what might have been said during the animated conversation flowing around Snow's rooms that fateful in Cambridge.

The quintet's debate anticipates all of the basic questions which have surrounded artificial intelligence in the fifty years since. Can a machine think or merely process information? Is the brain simply a symbol-processing machine, as Turing suggests, and if so, what is the nature of meaning? Can there be, as Wittgenstein proposes, no thought without language, and no language without the social interaction of human beings?

$16.26

Quantity

10 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
Edition: New Ed
Publisher: Abacus
Published: 03 Dec 1998
ISBN 10: 0349108536
ISBN 13: 9780349108537
Book Overview: * Review coverage * Custom made showcards

Media Reviews

Great fun: a dramatic and accessible introduction to the provocative modern field of artificial intelligence * GUARDIAN *
Casti has organised a satisfying meal ... when the party breaks up, and Schrodinger compliments his colleagues on the stimulating nature of their discussion, his sentiments will probably be shared by many readers too * THE TIMES *
These are difficult and important issues and it is to Casti's credit that his book explains them more clearly and concisely than any other I have read * Bryan Appleyard, NEW STATESMAN *
Enthralling, fascinating, Casti not only captures the excitement, but makes the ideas he relates intelligible to the layman. * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *
Thought-provoking ... Snow himself might well have approved * NEW SCIENTIST *

Author Bio

John L Casti is a member of the faculty of the Santa Fe Institute and a professor at the Technical University of Vienna. He is the author of PARADIGMS LOST etc.