Beyond Information: The Natural History of Intelligence
Preamble The emergence of machine intelligence during the second half of the twentieth century is the most important development in the evolution of this planet since the origin of life two to three thousand million years ago. The emergence of machine intelligence within the matrix of human society is analogous to the emergence, three billion years ago, of complex, self-replicating molecules within the matrix of an energy-rich molecular soup - the first step in the evolution of life. The emergence of machine intelligence within a human social context has set into motion irreversible processes which will lead to an evolutionary discontinuity. Just as the emergence of "Life" represented a qualitatively different form of organisation of matter and energy, so will pure "Intelligence" represent a qualitatively different form of organisation of matter, energy and life. The emergence of machine intelligence presages the progression of the human species as we know it, into a form which, at present, we would not recognise as "human". As Forsyth and Naylor (1985) have pointed out: "Humanity has opened two Pandora's boxes at the same time, one labelled genetic engineering, the other labelled knowledge engineering. What we have let out is not entirely clear, but it is reasonable to hazard a guess that it contains the seeds of our successors".
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Beyond Information: The Natural History of Intelligence
Preamble The emergence of machine intelligence during the second half of the twentieth century is the most important development in the evolution of this planet since the origin of life two to three thousand million years ago. The emergence of machine intelligence within the matrix of human society is analogous to the emergence, three billion years ago, of complex, self-replicating molecules within the matrix of an energy-rich molecular soup - the first step in the evolution of life. The emergence of machine intelligence within a human social context has set into motion irreversible processes which will lead to an evolutionary discontinuity. Just as the emergence of "Life" represented a qualitatively different form of organisation of matter and energy, so will pure "Intelligence" represent a qualitatively different form of organisation of matter, energy and life. The emergence of machine intelligence presages the progression of the human species as we know it, into a form which, at present, we would not recognise as "human". As Forsyth and Naylor (1985) have pointed out: "Humanity has opened two Pandora's boxes at the same time, one labelled genetic engineering, the other labelled knowledge engineering. What we have let out is not entirely clear, but it is reasonable to hazard a guess that it contains the seeds of our successors".
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Beyond Information: The Natural History of Intelligence

Beyond Information: The Natural History of Intelligence

by Tom Stonier
Beyond Information: The Natural History of Intelligence

Beyond Information: The Natural History of Intelligence

by Tom Stonier

Paperback(Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1992)

$99.99 
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Overview

Preamble The emergence of machine intelligence during the second half of the twentieth century is the most important development in the evolution of this planet since the origin of life two to three thousand million years ago. The emergence of machine intelligence within the matrix of human society is analogous to the emergence, three billion years ago, of complex, self-replicating molecules within the matrix of an energy-rich molecular soup - the first step in the evolution of life. The emergence of machine intelligence within a human social context has set into motion irreversible processes which will lead to an evolutionary discontinuity. Just as the emergence of "Life" represented a qualitatively different form of organisation of matter and energy, so will pure "Intelligence" represent a qualitatively different form of organisation of matter, energy and life. The emergence of machine intelligence presages the progression of the human species as we know it, into a form which, at present, we would not recognise as "human". As Forsyth and Naylor (1985) have pointed out: "Humanity has opened two Pandora's boxes at the same time, one labelled genetic engineering, the other labelled knowledge engineering. What we have let out is not entirely clear, but it is reasonable to hazard a guess that it contains the seeds of our successors".

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9783540196549
Publisher: Springer London
Publication date: 07/29/1992
Edition description: Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1992
Pages: 221
Product dimensions: 6.69(w) x 9.53(h) x 0.02(d)

Table of Contents

1 Introduction.- Preamble.- The Need for a Science of Machine Intelligence.- Knowledge Engineering.- A Brief Overview of the Book.- Problems with Definitions.- What Is Information?.- What Is Intelligence?.- Intelligence: A Spectrum of Phenomena.- Intelligence: The Basic Definition.- Beyond Information: The Evolution of Intelligence.- 2 The Spectrum of Intelligence.- Human Intelligence.- Sub-human Intelligence.- Sub-human Self-consciousness.- Dolphin Intelligence.- Instinctive Behaviour.- Are Brains Necessary for Intelligent Behaviour?.- Is a Nervous System Necessary for Intelligent Behaviour?.- Intelligence in Biological Subsystems.- Proto-Intelligence.- Intelligence and the Control of the Environment.- 3 The Origin and Early Evolution of Intelligence.- The Preconditions for Intelligence.- Proto-Intelligent Systems.- Clay Minerals and the Origin of Life.- Plants: Advanced Biosystems.- The Collective Intelligence of Micro-organisms.- 4 The Evolution of Collective Intelligence in Animals.- Collective Intelligence in Insect Societies.- Social Ants.- The Collective Intelligence of Honey Bees.- The Collective Intelligence of Dolphins.- Social Intelligence vs Collective Intelligence.- The Origin of Societies.- The Emergence of Culture in Animals.- Communication and Collective Intelligence.- A Short Comment on Intelligence, Genes and Evolution.- 5 Information Technology, Collective Intelligence and the Evolution of Human Societies.- Cultural Evolution.- The Role of Information Technology in Cultural Evolution.- China and Europe: A Case Study in Collective Intelligence.- BP: Before Printing.- The Invention of Writing.- The Communicative Era.- The Emerging Global Nervous System.- The Emerging Global Brain.- 6 The Evolution of Machine Intelligence.- Early Machine Intelligence.- Calculators and Computers Prior to 1940.- The First to Fourth Generations of Computers.- The Fifth Generation and Other Developments.- Cryogenic and Superconducting Computers.- Optical and Biocomputers.- First to Fifth Generation Robots.- Braitenberg’s Robots.- Ihnatowicz’s Senstor.- Expert Systems.- Networks.- Computer Viruses: True Artificial Intelligence.- 7 Computers and the Human Brain.- A Critique of Logic.- Biological Paradigms for Computer Architecture.- Comparing Classical Computers with the Human Brain.- Edelman’s Theory of “Neural Darwinism”.- The Unlogical Revolution.- Hillis’ Connection Machine.- Cellular Automata Machines.- Neural Network Computers.- Neural Network vs Classical Computers: A Summary.- Impact on Brain Research.- NN Computer Applications.- 8 The Future of Machine Intelligence.- Why Computers will Become Smarter than People.- Why Human Intelligence will Remain Ahead of Machine Intelligence for Some Time.- Turing’s Test for Thinking Machines.- Combination and Recombination.- Loving Computers?.- The Need for a Limbic System.- Machine Intelligence and Pain.- Lying Computers?.- A Plea for Loving Computers.- The Merger of Human and Machine Intelligence.- The Merger of Individual Human and Machine Intelligence.- Alter Ego Computers.- The Global Brain.- Self-Replicating Robot Factories and the Origin of Life.- 9 Summary and Conclusion.- The Evolution of Information Processing Systems.- The Evolution of Intelligence: An Overview.- The Future of Intelligence.- The Super-Intelligence Imperative.- The Need for Education.- Concluding Remarks.- A Tribute to Teilhard de Chardin.
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