CiNii Books - The emperor's new mind : concerning computers, minds, and the laws of physics

The proponents of artificial intelligence want to prove that it is only a matter of time before computers will be doing everything that a human mind can do. They take it for granted that pleasure and pain, the appreciation of beauty and humour, consciousness and free will are capacities that a computer will display once the appropriate programs of algorithms have been developed. Some disagree, because although electronic computers can calculate very rapidly, that does not make them understand what they are doing any more than, for example, an abacus does. The author puts forward his view that there is some facet of human thinking that can never be emulated by a machine. He shows the physical and mathematical ideas that are the background to his argument - from Turing machines, algorithms and the Chinese room, via quantum mechanics, cosmology and relativity to the structure of the brain, inspiration and consciousness itself.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Can a computer have a mind?: the Turing test
artificial intelligence
an AI approach to pleasure and pain
strong AI and Searle's Chinese room
hardware and software. Part 2 Algorithms and Turing machines: background to the algorithm concept
Turing's concept
binary coding of numerical data
the Church-Turing thesis
numbers other than natural numbers
the insolubility of Hilbert's problem
Church's lambda calculus. Part 3 Mathematics and reality: the land of Tor'Bled-Nam
real numbers
construction of the Mandelbrot set
Platonic realtiy of mathematical concepts. Part 4 Truth, proof and insight: Hilbert's programme for mathematics
Godel's theorem
Platonism of intuitionism?
Is the Mandelbrot set like non-recursive mathematics?. Part 5 The classical world: the status of the physical theory
Euclidean geometry
the dynamics of Galileo and Newton
the mechanistic world of Newtonian dynamics
Hamilton mechanics
Maxwell's electromagnetic theory
computablilty and the wave equation
the Lorentz equation of motion - runaway particles
the special relativity of Einstein and Poincare
Einstein's general relativity
relativistic causality and determinism
computability in classical physics - where do we stand?
mass, matter and reality. Part 6 Quantum magic and quantum mystery: do philosophers need quantum theory?
problems with classical theory
probability amplitudes
Hilbert space
measurements
Spin and the Riemann sphere of states
objectivity and measurability of quantum states
photon spin
the paradox of Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen
Schrodinger's equation - Dirac's equation
quatum field theory
Schrodinger's cat
various attitudes in existing quantum theory. Part 7 Cosmology and the arrow of time: the flow of time
the inexorable increase of entropy
the origin of low entropy in the universe
does the big bang explain the second law?
black holes
the structure of space - time singularities. Part 8 In search of quantum gravity: what lies behind the Weyl curvature hypothesis?
time-asymmetry in state-vector reduction
when does the state-vector reduce?. Part 9 Real brains and model brains: what are brains actually like?
where is the seat of consciousness?
split-brain experiments
information processing in the visual cortex
how do nerve signals work?
conputer models
parallel computers and the "oneness" of consciousness
is there a role for quantum mechanics in brain activity?. Part 10 Where lies the physics of the mind?: what are minds for?
what does consciousness actually do?
animal consciousness?
contact with Plato's world
a view of physical reality
tilings and quasicrystals
possible relevance to brain placticity
the time-delays of consciousness.

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The emperor's new mind : concerning computers, minds, and the laws of physics

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