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 | | Beyond AI: Creating the Conscience of the Machine by J. Storrs Hall ISBN-10: 9781591025115 ISBN-10: 1-59102-511-7 ISBN-13: 9781591025115 ISBN-13: 978-1-59102-511-5 Hardcover 2007-05-30 Prometheus Books Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description Artificial intelligence (AI) is now advancing at such a rapid clip that it has the potential to transform our world in ways both exciting and disturbing. Computers have already been designed that are capable of driving cars, playing soccer, and finding and organizing information on the Web in ways that no human could. With each new gain in processing power, will scientists soon be able to create supercomputers that can read a newspaper with understanding, or write a news story, or create novels, or even formulate laws? And if machine intelligence advances beyond human intelligence, will we need to start talking about a computer's intentions? These are some of the questions discussed by computer scientist J. Storrs Hall in this fascinating layperson's guide to the latest developments in artificial intelligence. Drawing on a thirty-year career in artificial intelligence and computer science, Hall reviews the history of AI, discussing some of the major roadblocks that the field has recently overcome, and predicting the probable achievements in the near future. There is new excitement in the field over the amazing capabilities of the latest robots and renewed optimism that achieving human-level intelligence is a reachable goal. But what will this mean for society and the relations between technology and human beings? Soon ethical concerns will arise and programmers will need to begin thinking about the computer counterparts of moral codes and how ethical interactions between humans and their machines will eventually affect society as a whole. Weaving disparate threads together in an enlightening manner from cybernetics, computer science, psychology, philosophy of mind, neurophysiology, game theory, and economics, Hall provides an intriguing glimpse into the astonishing possibilities and dilemmas on the horizon. | ||
Reviews | ||
Good, but not Great Maybe it's because I read it not long after reading Hofstadster's masterpiece "Godel, Escher, Bach", but I was slightly disappointed in Beyond AI. Many of the concepts and examples were the same despite the 25 years that separate both books, and some parts felt a bit rushed, with only a page or two dedicated to an important concept. The structure of the book also could have been better. By no means a bad book, but Godel, Escher, Bach is a better starting point (if a more demanding read) if you are interested in AI. | ||
A Ripping Good Read! It's hard to express how much I am enjoying this book. The writing style is very active-voice and lucid. I'm sure there's a really good editor somewhere in this mix, but not even the best editor can rehabilitate turgid prose (witness the prose we all have to slog through in the vast majority of books on technical subjects). The editor of this book probably had the opposite problem: how not to get in the author's expository way. I don't know the author personally, but I can tell you this about him: he is truly educated. In the classical tradition. By that I mean he has not only been a student of things technical, he has been a student of great writing, poetry, social science, economics, politics and more. It's not that he attempts to parade his knowledge in these areas; rather, it's that his strong liberal arts education, very naturally, simply permeates his expository style. More than that, he has the rare ability to present complex topics in a way that any curious reader can comprehend. Isaac Asimov, R. Buckmister Fuller, Richard Feynman, Freeman Dyson and Carl Sagan are the writers of which the author reminds me. And, like the erudite writers in that list, it is quite obvious that the author is truly interested (dare I say fascinated?) in the subject about which he is writing. His enthusiasm is contagious. Above all, he wants you to "get it." I don't think I've read a book that was written this well and inspired me intellectually this much since I read R. Buckmister Fuller's "Utopia or Oblivion" back in 1968. That book changed my life. Now, forty years later, I find another book that is so well written and intellectually provocative that it may just change my life again. This is a fascinating book. You must read it. Seriously. J. Storrs Hall is the Robert Ludlum of non-fiction. The only time I put this book down is when I'm driving because I'm pretty sure reading and driving at the same time is illegal in my state. I'm even reading it while I write this (OK, that's not true - but you get my point). This book is a ripping good read. It'll tickle your neurons until they cry out for mercy. | ||
Nonexistent phenomena Before attempting to build the consciousness machine author must provide a proof that such phenomena is existing. So far no one was able to find specific properties of that taught up phenomena. We could blindly believe in it existence in every day life, but scientific research required proof that its subject is present. Michael Zeldich | ||
A fine pick not just for libraries strong in computer studies BEYOND AI: CREATING THE CONSCIENCE OF THE MACHINE discusses both the scientific and the ethical challenges of artificial intelligence, which is advancing so quickly that it holds vast potential for quickly changing everyday human life - as vast as the Internet's realm. Computers are already capable of driving cars, playing soccer and organizing Web information: but if machine intelligence comes to rival human intelligence, will it eventually overcome humanity? This and other questions are addressed by a computer scientist who surveys achievements, potentials, and accompanying social challenges, making it a fine pick not just for libraries strong in computer studies, but for college-level and even general-interest holdings equally strong in social science. | ||
A decent book on AI, a great book about Ethics The first two thirds of this book survey current knowledge of AI and make some guesses about when and how it will take off. This part is more eloquent than most books on similar subjects, and its somewhat different from normal perspective makes it worth reading if you are reading several books on the subject. But ease of reading is the only criterion by which this section stands out as better than competing books. The last five chapters that are surprisingly good, and should shame most professional philosophers whose writings by comparison are a waste of time. His chapter on consciousness, qualia, and related issues is more concise and persuasive than anything else I've read on these subjects. It's unlikely to change the opinions of people who have already thought about these subjects, but it's an excellent place for people who are unfamiliar with them to start. His discussions of ethics using game theory and evolutionary pressures is an excellent way to frame ethical discussions. My biggest disappointment was that he starts to recognize a possibly important risk of AI when he says "disparities among the abilities of AIs ... could negate the evolutionary pressure to reciprocal altruism", but then seems to dismiss that thoughtlessly ("The notion of one single AI taking off and obtaining hegemony over the whole world by its own efforts is ludicrous"). He probably has semi-plausible grounds for dismissing some of the scenarios of this nature that have been proposed (e.g. the speed at which some people imagine an AI would take off is improbable). But if AIs with sufficiently general purpose intelligence enhance their intelligence at disparate rates for long enough, the results would render most of the book's discussion of ethics irrelevant. The time it took humans to accumulate knowledge didn't give Neanderthals much opportunity to adapt. Would the result have been different if Neanderthals had learned to trade with humans? The answer is not obvious, and probably depends on Neanderthal learning abilities in ways that I don't know how to analyze. Also, his arguments for optimism aren't quite as strong as he thinks. His point that career criminals are generally of low intelligence is reassuring if the number of criminals is all that matters. But when the harm done by one relatively smart criminal can be very large (e.g. Mao), it's hard to say that the number of criminals is all that matters. Here's a nice quote from Mencken which this book quotes part of: Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on 'I am not too sure.' Another interesting tidbit is the anecdote that H.G. Wells predicted in 1907 that flying machines would be built. In spite of knowing a lot about attempts to build them, he wasn't aware that the Wright brothers had succeeded in 1903. If an AI started running in 2003 that has accumulated the knowledge of a 4-year old human and has the ability to continue learning at human or faster speeds, would we have noticed? Or would the reports we see about it sound too much like the reports of failed AIs for us to pay attention? | ||