CONTEMPLATING MINDS:

A Forum for Artificial Intelligence

Edited by

William J. Clancey, Steven W. Smoliar, Mark J. Stefik

© 1994 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Published by The MIT Press

This book is about competing theories of mind, as understood by people who build computational models of minds. These theories range over a broad terrain: beginning with the traditional symbolic theories (that minds store and manipulate symbols), progressing through theories based on interaction (including situated cognition, Minsky's "society of mind," and connectionism), and culminating in biological and philosophical perspective on memory and consciousness.

The essays in this book appeared originally in the book review column of the journal, Artificial Intelligence. The collection is a forum in which theories of the mind are described and debated. Each Part is organized around related books and multiple reviews of a book discussing one of the competing theories of mind. The reviews--often of tutorial breadth--summarize the main arguments and provide historical background. The reviewers come from diverse fields and positions, frequently from outside the field of artificial intelligence; many are well-known researchers who advocate their own theory of mind. Responses by the authors and many citations to the literature provide opportunities for the reader to pursue these debates in greater depth.

These rich and often provocative reviews were written for a general audience. The editors' introductions to each of the Parts relate the opposing points of view and provide guidance to the reader. This collection is ideal for college seminars in psychology, computer science, cognitive neuroscience, and philosophy.

CONTENTS

I Symbolic Models of Mind

Computation and Cognition: Toward a Foundation for Cognitive Science, by Z.W. Pylyshyn

reviewed by Stefik, Mackworth, response by Pylyshyn

Unified Theories of Cognition, by Allen Newell

reviewed by Arbib, Dennett, Fehling, B. Hayes-Roth, Minsky, Pollack, Purves, Schank/Jona, response by Rosenbloom and Laird

II Situated Action

Understanding Computers and Cognition: A New Foundation for Design, By T. Winograd and F. Flores

reviewed by Vellino, Stefik/Bobrow, Suchman, Clancey, response by Winograd and Flores

Plans and Situated Actions: The Problem of Human-Machine Communication, by Lucy A. Suchman

reviewed by Agre

The Sciences of the Artificial, Second Edition, by H. A. Simon

reviewed by Stefik, response by Simon

The Psychology of Everyday Things, by Donald.A. Norman

reviewed by Weld

Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things, by George Lakoff

reviewed by Weld

III Architectures of Interaction

The Society of Mind, by Marvin Minsky

reviewed by Dyer, Ginsberg, Reeke, Smoliar, response by Minsky

The Ecology of Computation, edited by B. A. Huberman

reviewed by Wellman

Emergent Computation: Self-Organizing, Collective, and Cooperative Phenomena in Natural and Artificial Computing Networks, edited by Stephanie Forrest

reviewed by Todd

Connectionism and Symbols, edited by Steven Pinker and Jacques Mehler

reviewed by Derthick

IV Memory and Consciousness

The Invention of Memory: A New View of the Brain, by Israel Rosenfield

reviewed by Clancey

Neural Darwinism: The Theory of Neuronal Group Selection, by Gerald M. Edelman

reviewed by Smoliar

The Remembered Present: A Biological Theory of Consciousness, by Gerald M. Edelman

reviewed by Smoliar

The Strange, Familiar, and Forgotten: An Anatomy of Consciousness, by Israel Rosenfield, and Bright Air, Brilliant Fire: On the Matter of the Mind, by Gerald M. Edelman

reviewed by Clancey

Consciousness Explained, by Daniel C. Dennett, The Evolution of Consciousness: Of Darwin, Freud, and Cranial Fire: The Origins of the Way we think, by Robert Ornstein, and Metaphysics of Consciousness by William Seager

review by O'Rourke

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