Luciano Floridi: Philosophy and Computing: An Introduction (1999)
Filed under book | Tags: · artificial intelligence, computing, hypertext, neural networks, philosophy, philosophy of technology, quantum computing, technology
“Philosophy and Computing explores each of the following areas of technology: the digital revolution; the computer; the Internet and the Web; CD-ROMs and Mulitmedia; databases, textbases, and hypertexts; Artificial Intelligence; the future of computing.
Luciano Floridi shows us how the relationship between philosophy and computing provokes a wide range of philosophical questions: is there a philosophy of information? What can be achieved by a classic computer? How can we define complexity? What are the limits of quantam computers? Is the Internet an intellectual space or a polluted environment? What is the paradox in the Strong Artificial Intlligence program?”
Publisher Routledge, 1999
ISBN 0415180252, 9780415180252
242 pages
PDF (updated on 2015-2-21)
Comment (0)James Gardner: The Intelligent Universe. AI, ET, and the Emerging Mind of the Cosmos (2007)
Filed under book | Tags: · big bang, cosmos, emergence, genetic programming, quantum computing, technological singularity, technology
What is the ultimate destiny of our universe? That is the striking question addressed by James Gardner in The Intelligent Universe.
Traditionally, scientists (and Robert Frost) have offered two bleak answers to this profound issue: fire or ice.
The cosmos might end in fire—a cataclysmic Big Crunch in which galaxies, planets, and life forms are consumed in a raging inferno as the universe contracts in a kind of Big Bang in reverse.
Or the universe might end in ice—a ceaseless expansion of the fabric of space-time in which matter and energy are eternally diluted and cooled; stars wither and die , and the cosmos simply fades into quiet and endless oblivion.
In The Intelligent Universe, James Gardner envisions a third dramatic alternative—a final state of the cosmos in which a highly evolved form of group intelligence engineers a cosmic renewal, the birth of a new universe.
Gardner’s vision is that life and intelligence are at the very heart of the elegant machinery of the universe. It is a viewpoint that has won outspoken praise from an array of leading scientists, including Sir Martin Rees, Britain’s Astronomer Royal, and Templeton Prize winner Paul Davies.
The Intelligent Universe is both a look into the past and a road map for the future of the universe. It explores the mysteries of the universe and of consciousness, and provides a frank and fascinating look at where our minds are taking us.
Publisher Career Press, 2007
ISBN 1564149196, 9781564149190
Length 269 pages
Julian Brown: Minds, Machines, and the Multiverse: The Quest for the Quantum Computer (2000)
Filed under book | Tags: · quantum computing
Taking readers to the cutting edge of physics, mathematics, and computer science, Julian Brown tells the dramatic story of the groundbreaking efforts to create a fundamentally new kind of computer that would be astronomically more powerful than today’s machines. In 1998, a team of researchers announced they had produced the world’s first quantum computer in a cup of chloroform. In fascinating, fully accessible detail, Brown explains the ideas that led up to this accomplishment and explores the mind-stretching implications of this leap into the bizarre world of quantum physics. The Quest for the Quantum Computer is a riveting look at what promises to be one of the most important scientific and technological ideas of the twenty-first century.
Publisher Simon & Schuster, 2000
ISBN 0-684-87004-5, 978-0-6848-7004-5
Length 396 pages
More info (publisher)
More info (google books)
PDF (DJVU)
Comment (0)