Joseph Weizenbaum: Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment To Calculation (1976) [English, German]
Filed under book | Tags: · artificial intelligence, computation, critique, critique of technology, ethics, technology
“Joseph Weizenbaum’s influential book displays his ambivalence towards computer technology and lays out his case: while artificial intelligence may be possible, we should never allow computers to make important decisions because computers will always lack human qualities such as compassion and wisdom. Weizenbaum makes the crucial distinction between deciding and choosing. Deciding is a computational activity, something that can ultimately be programmed. It is the capacity to choose that ultimately makes us human. Choice, however, is the product of judgment, not calculation. Comprehensive human judgment is able to include non-mathematical factors such as emotions. Judgment can compare apples and oranges, and can do so without quantifying each fruit type and then reductively quantifying each to factors necessary for mathematical comparison.”
Publisher W. H. Freeman, 1976
ISBN 0716704633, 9780716704638
300 pages
Review: Amy Stout.
Computer Power and Human Reason (English, 1976, DJVU, updated on 2013-11-22)
Computermacht und Gesellschaft (German, trans. Gunna Wendt, 2001, unpaginated, added on 2013-11-22)
Marvin Minsky: The Emotion Machine: Commonsense Thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Human Mind (2006)
Filed under book | Tags: · artificial intelligence, emotion, mind, thinking
“In this book, Marvin Minsky argues persuasively that emotions, intuitions, and feelings are not distinct things, but different ways of thinking.
By examining these different forms of mind activity, Minsky says, we can explain why our thought sometimes takes the form of carefully reasoned analysis and at other times turns to emotion. He shows how our minds progress from simple, instinctive kinds of thought to more complex forms, such as consciousness or self-awareness. And he argues that because we tend to see our thinking as fragmented, we fail to appreciate what powerful thinkers we really are. Indeed, says Minsky, if thinking can be understood as the step-by-step process that it is, then we can build machines — artificial intelligences — that not only can assist with our thinking by thinking as we do but have the potential to be as conscious as we are.”
Publisher Simon & Schuster, 2006
ISBN 0743276647, 9780743276641
400 pages
PDF (updated on 2014-9-14)
HTML draft
David D. Friedman: Future Imperfect. Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World (2008)
Filed under book | Tags: · artificial intelligence, biotechnology, drugs, freedom, nanotechnology, surveillance, technology, virtual reality
“Future Imperfect describes and discusses a variety of technological revolutions that might happen over the next few decades, their implications, and how to deal with them. Topics range from encryption and surveillance through biotechnology and nanotechnology to life extension, mind drugs, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. One theme of the book is that the future is radically uncertain. Technological changes already begun could lead to more or less privacy than we have ever known, freedom or slavery, effective immortality or the elimination of our species, and radical changes in life, marriage, law, medicine, work, and play. We do not know which future will arrive, but it is unlikely to be much like the past. It is worth starting to think about it now.
• Comments on radical changes in life, marriage, law, medicine, work, and play • Covers many different technologies and the different futures they might bring • Focuses on what world could be like if various technological advances continue to develop and how we might adjust”
Publisher Cambridge University Press, 2008
ISBN 0521877326, 9780521877329
351 pages
PDF (updated on 2012-3-9)
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