How the Body Shapes the Way We Think: A New View of Intelligence (Paperback or Softback)

Pfeifer, Rolf

ISBN 10: 0262537427 / ISBN 13: 9780262537421

Published by MIT Press 10/27/2006, 2006

About this Item

How the Body Shapes the Way We Think: A New View of Intelligence.

Seller Inventory # BBS-9780262537421

Bibliographic Details

• Title: How the Body Shapes the Way We Think: A New View of Intelligence (Paperback or Softback)
• Publisher: MIT Press 10/27/2006
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262537427
• ISBN 13: 9780262537421
• Binding: Paperback or Softback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 1.23 pounds
• Book Type: Book

About this title

Synopsis

An exploration of embodied intelligence and its implications points toward a theory of intelligence in general; with case studies of intelligent systems in ubiquitous computing, business and management, human memory, and robotics.

How could the body influence our thinking when it seems obvious that the brain controls the body? In How the Body Shapes the Way We Think, Rolf Pfeifer and Josh Bongard demonstrate that thought is not independent of the body but is tightly constrained, and at the same time enabled, by it. They argue that the kinds of thoughts we are capable of have their foundation in our embodiment—in our morphology and the material properties of our bodies.

This crucial notion of embodiment underlies fundamental changes in the field of artificial intelligence over the past two decades, and Pfeifer and Bongard use the basic methodology of artificial intelligence—"understanding by building"—to describe their insights. If we understand how to design and build intelligent systems, they reason, we will better understand intelligence in general. In accessible, nontechnical language, and using many examples, they introduce the basic concepts by building on recent developments in robotics, biology, neuroscience, and psychology to outline a possible theory of intelligence. They illustrate applications of such a theory in ubiquitous computing, business and management, and the psychology of human memory. Embodied intelligence, as described by Pfeifer and Bongard, has important implications for our understanding of both natural and artificial intelligence.

About the Author

Rolf Pfeifer is Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in the Department of Informatics at the University of Zurich. He is the author of Understanding Intelligence (MIT Press, 1999).