Artificial Knowing: Gender and the Thinking Machine / Edition 1

by Alison Adam

Overview

Artificial Knowing challenges the masculine slant in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) view of the world. Alison Adam admirably fills the large gap in science and technology studies by showing us that gender bias is inscribed in AI-based computer systems. Her treatment of feminist epistemology, focusing on the ideas of the knowing subject, the nature of knowledge, rationality and language, are bound to make a significant and powerful contribution to AI studies.
Drawing from theories by Donna Haraway and Sherry Turkle, and using tools of feminist epistemology, Adam provides a sustained critique of AI which interestingly re-enforces many of the traditional criticisms of the AI project. Artificial Knowing is an esential read for those interested in gender studies, science and technology studies, and philosophical debates in AI.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415129626
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	01/15/1998
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Alison Adam is a lecturer in Computation at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. She also worked as a technical consultant and a systems analyst.

Table of Contents

Introduction, 1. Feminist resources, 2. AI in context, 3. The Knowing subject in AI, 4. Knowledge, language and rationality in AI, 5. Embodiment and situatedness - the artificial life alternative, 6. Feminist AI projects and cyberfutures, Notes, Bibliography.

Editorial Reviews

'A book which brings together philosophy, engineering, sociology and feminism is a laudable accomplishment and an example of the multiple levels of analysis required by digital technologies.' - New Media & Society

'This is an important contribution to critiques of artificial intelligence, which have noted the asocial view of human intelligence enacted by its designers, but not hitherto seen this in the light of gender relations. Adam also makes a significant contribution to feminist epistemology by applying it to a field of practice in a way that makes clear its implications for the kinds of object which are produced.' - Work Employment & Society

From the Publisher

Adam (U. of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology) challenges the masculine slant in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) view of the world, showing how gender is inscribed in AI-based computer systems. Her feminist treatment of the ideas of the knowing subject, and the nature of knowledge, rationality and language provides a sustained critique of AI which re-enforces and extends many of the traditional criticisms of the AI project. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews