Machines who think : a personal inquiry into the history and prospects of artificial intelligence

584 Pages·2004·4.24 MB·English

by  McCorduck

Machines
Who
Think
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Other books by the author:
Familiar Relations (novel)
Working to the End (novel)
The Fifth Generation (with Edward A. Feigenbaum)
The Universal Machine
The Rise of the Expert Company
(with Edward A. Feigenbaum and H. Penny Nii)
Aaron’s Code
The Futures of Women (with Nancy Ramsey)
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Machines
Who
Think
A Personal Inquiry into
the History and Prospects
of Artificial Inte(cid:1)lligence

Pamela
McCorduck
A K Peters, Ltd.
Natick, Massachusetts
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Copyright © 2004 by A K Peters, Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright notice
may be reproduced or utilized in any form, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without written permission from the copyright owner.
“Artificial Intelligence”. Copyright (c) 1993, 1967, 1963 by Adrienne Rich,
from COLLECTED EARLY POEMS: 1950-1970 by Adrienne Rich. Used by
permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McCorduck, Pamela, 1940-
Machines who think : a personal inquiry into the history and prospects of
artificial intelligence / Pamela McCorduck.–2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-56881-205-1
1. Artificial intelligence–History. I. Title.
Q335.M23 2003
006.3’09–dc21
2003051791
Printed in Canada
08 07 06 05 04 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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To W.J.M., whose energetic curiosity
was always a delight
and, at the last, a wonder.
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“Some of the people are saying the Eight Sages took
you away to teach you magic,” said a little girl
cousin. “They say they changed you into a bird, and
you flew to them.”
“Some say you went to the city and became a
prostitute,” another cousin giggled.
“You might tell them that I met some teachers
who were willing to teach me science,” I said.
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts,
—Maxine Hong Kingston
“Everything should be made as simple as possible,
but not simpler.”
—Albert Einstein
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Cont(cid:1)ents
Foreword xi
Preface xvii
Time Line: The Mechanization of Thinking xxiii
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1 Brass for Brain 3
Surveys attempts before the twentieth century to create artificial intelligences, both
literary and real. Argues that twentieth-century artificial intelligence is only the latest,
though the most successful, instance of a long Western tradition, and shares much with
its ancestors.
2 From Energy to Information 37
Delineates the early attempts of philosophers, and later psychologists, to define the
mind, and the parallel attempts of mathematicians to turn human logic into rigorous
mathematics. Shows that the dominant model for these thinkers was from physics, and
that not until cybernetics introduced a new model—information in an open system, as
opposed to energy in a closed system—could the computer successfully be used as a
medium for intelligent behavior.
3 The Machinery of Wisdom 59
Focuses on the computer as a medium for intelligent behavior, with close attention to
Alan Turing, a brilliant British logician who helped design one of the first computers
and was responsible for much early work in artificial intelligence. Discusses the Ameri-
can pioneer John von Neumann, who held a view opposite to Turing’s, that computers
would never be able to “think.”
4 Meat Machines 85
Traces the growing conviction that brains are a species of machine, the failed attempts to
equate the on-off logic of the computer with the on-off logic of brain neurons. Reviews
the early work of McCulloch and Pitts, as well as self-organizing systems, the Perceptron,
and other attempts in the United States and Great Britain to link brains and machines.
vii
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viii Contents
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5 The Dartmouth Conference 111
Reports on a conference that in 1956 gathered the threads of an assortment of projects with
the same general underlying assumptions. Everyone was there, and the conference served as
a rite of tribal identification that set patterns for future research and personal relations.
6 The Information-Processing Model 137
Covers the pioneering work of Newell, Shaw, and Simon, which set the tone for the
next decade of research. The influence of these men on computing and cognitive
psychology so pervades those fields that their discoveries and models are simply taken
for granted.
7 Fun and Games 171
Describes how computers were taught to play chess and checkers, and why this devel-
opment made IBM so nervous. Analyzes the scientific and social significance of com-
puter games.
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8 Us and Them 195
Discusses the critics of artificial intelligence, who give the lie to the idea that science is
a disinterested enterprise. Includes some speculations as to why artificial intelligence
seems to provoke people to extremes, and covers the first extremist, Mortimer Taube,
author of Computers and Common Sense.
9 L’Affaire Dreyfus 211
Considers the bitterest critic of artificial intelligence, who examined the evidence and found
it wanting. However, a computer walloped him at chess, and his demands continue to be
met. (Or do they?) Dreyfus and his book What Computers Can’t Do are introduced as fixtures
in the artificial-intelligence community, and the man is presented as an example of the
committed mind that finds only what it expects to find, even as scientists with the opposite
commitment find what they expect to find. Relates prophecies, insults, and other scientific
high jinks—a case study in the subjective side of science and philosophy.
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10 Robotics and General Intelligence 243
Investigates the robot and the difficulty of general, as opposed to special-purpose, intel-
ligence. Presents two approaches, the General Problem Solver and the Advice Taker,
and inspects some of the problems and solutions robot makers have encountered. Fo-
cuses on Shakey, the SRI robot, who rolled into the hearts and fears of millions—
thanks to some scurrilous publicity.
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Contents ix
11 Language, Scenes, Symbols, and Understanding 277
Views some of the interesting projects of the 1970s having to do with language, scenes,
symbols, and understanding. Concentrates on language understanding, written and
spoken, and parallel problems in visual analysis.
12 Applied Artificial Intelligence 317
Examines a here-and-now application of artificial intelligence in DENDRAL, the pro-
gram that assists organic chemists, and some of its collateral programs. Looks at the MIT
education laboratory, which applies artificial-intelligence principles in a different way.
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13 Can a Made-Up Mind Be Moral? 353
Asks the questions: Can artificial intelligence really be created? If it can, should it?
Reflects on the moral and ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence. Reviews
Weizenbaum’s Computer Power and Human Reason and responses to it.
14 Forging the Gods 381
Appraises the central scientific claim of artificial intelligence: that it demonstrates how
symbols can be embodied in a physical system, serving as a key to the understanding of
mind as the theory of evolution was to the understanding of biology. Regards artificial
intelligence as a bridge between science and art, telling us about ourselves in some
startling ways. Speculates as to future directions.
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The Following Quarter-Century of Artificial Intelligence 417
The next quarter-century: from celebrity status to fragmented has-been, and back to
solid science; successful robots without symbolic intelligence raise big questions; skep-
tics continue to doubt and scientists continue to work at the job; achieving a major AI
goal-a machine beats the world’s chess champion-reveals new, more challenging goals;
the growing realization that intelligence is both knowledge-based and collaborative;
finally, the near future looks promising.
Timeline: The Evolution of Intelligence 523
Bibliography 535
Index 547
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