The Muse in the Machine: Computerizing the Poetry of Human Thought - Softcover

Gelernter, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743236556 ISBN 13: 9780743236553

Publisher: Free Press, 2002

Synopsis

A leading mind in the world of artificial intelligence answers the provocative question: “Can we introduce emotion into the computer?”

Can we introduce emotion into the computer? David Gelernter, one of the leading lights in artificial intelligence today, begins The Muse in the Machine with this provocative question. In providing an answer, he not only points to a future revolution in computers, but radically changes our views of the human mind itself. Bringing together insights from computer science, cognitive psychology, philosophy of mind, and literary theory, David Gelernter presents what is sure to be a much debated view of how humans have thought, how we think today, and how computers will learn to think in the future.

About this title

Review

When most of us think of Artificial Intelligence, we separate the notion of emotion from our imaginings. And portrayals of the likely consequences of emotions in computers invariably suggest that there would be a systemic breakdown in the computer's functionality. For example, it is the childish emotionalism of HAL in 2001 that wreaked havoc, not its superhuman intellectual capacity.

Gelertner, esteemed CS professor of AI at Yale University, has written a fascinating book on why it may be absolutely necessary to create emotionality if there is to be true Artificial Intelligence. My father used to say, "If there's Artificial Intelligence, there's bound to be artificial stupidity"; Gelertner would say, "without artificial emotionalism, there cannot be Artificial Intelligence."

From the Publisher

Can we introduce emotion into the computer? David Gelernter, one of the leading lights in artificial intelligence today, begins The Muse in the Machine with this provocative question. In providing an answer, he not only points to a future revolution in computers but radically changes our views of the human mind itself. Bringing together insights from computer science, cognitive psychology, philosophy of mind, and literary theory, David Gelernter presents what is sure to be a much debated view of how humans have thought, how we think today, and how computers will learn to think in the future.

About this edition

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0743236556
• ISBN 13: 9780743236553
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224