Mind Matters

Rating:
Summary: it supplemented my view that the computer is the minds helpe
Review: I feel a computer helps humans to consider more complex ideas and that it is an adjunct to the human mind. I don't believe in AI. This book and Mr Hogan's comments support me in that. It is thoroughly enjoyable and written in an interested reader's level and not too Hi-tech.

Rating:
Summary: it supplemented my view that the computer is the minds helpe
Review: I feel a computer helps humans to consider more complex ideas and that it is an adjunct to the human mind. I don't believe in AI. This book and Mr Hogan's comments support me in that. It is thoroughly enjoyable and written in an interested reader's level and not too Hi-tech.

Rating:
Summary: Tough going, but worth the effort.
Review: I started to say I "enjoyed" this book, but it seems to be this is not the type of book that one "enjoys." I have read everything of James P. Hogan's work I could get my hands on, and he is one of my top two or three favorite writers. This is non-fiction, but it reflects the same clear and interesting style of his fiction. I would say that this book is not for a casual reader, nor was it intended as a textbook, though at some points it may seem that way. Artificial intelligence is a very interesting and widely misunderstood subject, and perhaps the greatest value of this book is in exploding some of the myths about AI. This is not a quick, easy read, but for the layman who wants to learn more about AI, it is well worth the time and effort involved in reading it.

Rating:
Summary: A rehash of other books, but with a better style
Review: I started to say I "enjoyed" this book, but it seems to be this is not the type of book that one "enjoys." I have read everything of James P. Hogan's work I could get my hands on, and he is one of my top two or three favorite writers. This is non-fiction, but it reflects the same clear and interesting style of his fiction. I would say that this book is not for a casual reader, nor was it intended as a textbook, though at some points it may seem that way. Artificial intelligence is a very interesting and widely misunderstood subject, and perhaps the greatest value of this book is in exploding some of the myths about AI. This is not a quick, easy read, but for the layman who wants to learn more about AI, it is well worth the time and effort involved in reading it.

Rating:
Summary: Tough going, but worth the effort.
Review: I started to say I "enjoyed" this book, but it seems to be this is not the type of book that one "enjoys." I have read everything of James P. Hogan's work I could get my hands on, and he is one of my top two or three favorite writers. This is non-fiction, but it reflects the same clear and interesting style of his fiction. I would say that this book is not for a casual reader, nor was it intended as a textbook, though at some points it may seem that way. Artificial intelligence is a very interesting and widely misunderstood subject, and perhaps the greatest value of this book is in exploding some of the myths about AI. This is not a quick, easy read, but for the layman who wants to learn more about AI, it is well worth the time and effort involved in reading it.

Rating:
Summary: A great introduction to AI
Review: I think this should be the first book that college students considering a career in AI research should read. It is far FAR more readable than "Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach" for the layperson ... or any person for that matter. I really hope that Mr. Hogan releases updated versions of this book every five years ... which means we're past due for the next edition right now. ;-)

And I hope Mr. Hogan infuses more of the book with his sense of humor ... especially at the end. He needs to keep this VERY dry topic as light as he can.

Rating:
Summary: A great introduction to AI
Review: I think this should be the first book that college students considering a career in AI research should read. It is far FAR more readable than "Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach" for the layperson ... or any person for that matter. I really hope that Mr. Hogan releases updated versions of this book every five years ... which means we're past due for the next edition right now. ;-)

And I hope Mr. Hogan infuses more of the book with his sense of humor ... especially at the end. He needs to keep this VERY dry topic as light as he can.

Rating:
Summary: A rehash of other books, but with a better style
Review: This isn't the first "history of AI" book in my collection, and won't be the last. I picked this one up because of Hogan's name, and am happy with that choice. I like his style. He knows where to put in the jokes (although he could use a few more during the weaker parts toward the end). The beginning, which starts wayyyyy back with the philosophers, is a little dry, and the end (with lots of time spent on what computers still can't do) didn't interest me. I like knowing about the trials and tribulations of what worked and didn't, and why. I'm hoping that one of these days somebody will do an entire book on the Cyc project.

Rating:
Summary: A rehash of other books, but with a better style
Review: This isn't the first "history of AI" book in my collection, and won't be the last. I picked this one up because of Hogan's name, and am happy with that choice. I like his style. He knows where to put in the jokes (although he could use a few more during the weaker parts toward the end). The beginning, which starts wayyyyy back with the philosophers, is a little dry, and the end (with lots of time spent on what computers still can't do) didn't interest me. I like knowing about the trials and tribulations of what worked and didn't, and why. I'm hoping that one of these days somebody will do an entire book on the Cyc project.

Rating:
Summary: Background and aims of the book.
Review: This was my first venture into a full book-length, nonfiction project. One of the great things about life is that education never really has to end if you keep looking hard enough.

Well, actually, I didn't have to look. One day in September 1996 the phone rang, and my agent, Eleanor Wood, said, "Owen Lock [of Ballantine] wants you to do a book on AI for them." Apparently there had been a management meeting there, and somebody had proposed bringing out a popular-level coverage of the subject to coincide with the Kasparov-Deep Blue replay scheduled for May, 1997.

"Mind Matters" isn't intended as a textbook for Ph.D.s to add to their shelves--scores of excellent ones have been written already, and I'm not the person to add to them. Neither is it a history of the field-- which has also been well covered by other writers in ways that need no improvement. Rather, it's a mixture of background and techniques, with an emphasis of understanding why, but also with a historical thread--as the subtitle says, more of an amble around the world of AI, stopping to have a look at assorted things that I, personally, find of interest. Topics include:

-- From Aristotle and the medieval Scholastics to Descartes and the change in world-view that made the notion of a machine's being capable of imitating what minds do at least thinkable.

-- Charles Babbage and his design for a steam-driven mechanical computer, the "Analytical Engine," which was years ahead of its time but never built because of a combination of technical and political problems.

-- logic and the story of attempts to mechanize it; how Russell and Whitehead torpedoed Gottlob Frege when he thought he could prove all of mathematics, only to be blown out of the water themselves by Kurt G"del; Alan Turing with his machines and his Test; what set the digital computer apart from every other machine ever conceived.

-- the development of AI from the "Cybernetics" of the 40s, the Dartmouth Conference in 1956, through to the work in the 60s and 70s at places like MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and IBM on such things as theorem proving, problem solving, artificial vision, robotics.

-- computer game-playing from Arthur Samuel's Checkers Player in the 50s to IBM's Deep Blue.

-- the enormous difficulties of trying to program such faculties as natural-language comprehension and common sense; why computers that are so good at the things humans find hard have so much trouble with tasks that are effortless for young children.

-- and along the way, a look at such techniques as expert systems, parallel architecture, neural nets and Boltzmann machines, data mining, genetic programming, and holographic processing.