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The Emotion Machine: Commonsense Thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Human Mind
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 153
EAN: 9780743276634
ISBN: 0743276639
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 400
Publication Date: November 07, 2006
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Studio: Simon & Schuster
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Editorial Review:
Our minds are working all the time, but we rarely stop to think about how they work. The human mind has many different ways to think, says Marvin Minsky, the leading figure in artificial intelligence and computer science. We use these different ways of thinking in different circumstances, and some of them we don't even associate with thinking. For example, emotions, intuitions, and feelings are just other forms of thinking, according to Minsky. In his groundbreaking new work, The Emotion Machine, Minsky shows why we should expand our ideas about thinking and how thinking itself might change in the future.
The Emotion Machine explains how our minds work, how they progress from simple kinds of thought to more complex forms that enable us to reflect on ourselves -- what most people refer to as consciousness, or self-awareness. Unlike other broad theories of the mind, this book proceeds in a step-by-step fashion that draws on detailed and specific examples. It shows that thinking -- even higher-level thinking -- can be broken down into a series of specific actions. From emotional states to goals and attachments and on to consciousness and awareness of self, we can understand the process of thinking in all its intricacy. And once we understand thinking, we can build machines -- artificial intelligences -- that can assist with our thinking, machines that can follow the same thinking patterns that we follow and that can think as we do. These humanlike thinking machines would also be emotion machines -- just as we are.
This is a brilliant book that challenges many ideas about thinking and the mind. It is as insightful and provocative as it is original, the fruit of a lifetime spent thinking about thinking.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Worth the read.
Minsky presents interesting new ideas on understanding ourselves. It makes sense that the mind, like the body, may seem simple on the outside but is amazingly complex on the inside.
Rating:  - Very Interesting subject. Good discussion points.
Like all books on human intelligence also this one is obviously speculation. But it is very helpful speculation if you are interested in the subject. Not all is simple reading especially if you have not been exposed to it before. My own opinion was well advanced by reading this book and I too have agreements and disagreements. Minsky properly suggests that looking at the mind in a too fragmented way will stop us from understanding it. I too see the mind as a complex whole of concepts, processes, ... Read More
Rating:  - I am not its target audience
I put this book on the shelf last night about 2/3 done, it will not be finished. I have a back ground in controls engineering and physics simulation, and much of what the author talks about is very similar to these subjects (feedback-control, gain schedualling, non-linear systems, constrained optimization, multi agent interactions etc) yet there is absolutely no use of this body of knowledge. Also the 'style' used in the presented flow diagrams is pain full.
From the word 'machine' ... Read More
Rating: - Disappointing and too "Textbook-like'
Several other reviews do a good job at describing the content of the book. In contrast I'd like to focus on my reactions to it.
I have read about conciousness before -- including the works of Hofstadler and Penrose ("Emperor's New Mind"). I expected "The Emotion Machine" to be a similar work, exploring the issues of conciousness and the mind in a way that would stimutae further independent thought and ideas about an critical scientific/philosphical issue that mankind and science has been ... Read More
Rating: - Society of Mind II
A good book with interesting ideas. However, there was a fair ammount of rehash from his other book (Society of Mind), there was alot of conjecture with not much expereimentally backed up theory, and of course no sourcecode!
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