Beyond Information: The Natural History of Intelligence

ISBN-13: 9783540196549 / Angielski / Miękka / 1992 / 221 str.

Tom Stonier

Opis

The second half of the twentieth century has seen the use of machine intelligence infiltrate many critical areas of technology, including defence and military planning. Intelligent knowledge-based systems have the potential to augment informed judgement and to help avoid high-technology failures such as the Chernobyl meltdown by reducing the margin for human error. However, as our understanding of the nature of information and human intelligence is extremely limited, it is now recognised that we need to develop a body of scientific knowledge about artificial intelligence to ensure that these systems are sufficiently reliable for the roles they perform. In Beyond Information Professor Tom Stonier examines the issues involved in making artificial intelligence into an engineering science and clarifies many of the accompanying problems. He also makes an important contribution to the development of a theory of information by discussing the evolution of intelligence from its most primitive to its most advanced conceivable form. Beyond Information is the second in a trilogy of books which addresses this important area: the first volume, "Information" "and the Internal Structure of the Universe," examined the proposition that information has a physical reality, like matter and energy, while a third volume, "Beyond Chaos," will outline the requirements of a theory of information in greater detail. Among the actual topics discussed in this volume are: the nature of intelligence and information; intelligence as the inevitable product of an advanced information system; the evolution of collective intelligence into animal society; the evolution of human culture and technology; a comparison between the human brain and the computer; and the future of machine intelligence with an emphasis on neural network computers. Overall Beyond Information considers the long term future of the human race in the face of the extraordinary new technology which is emerging. Although it is specifically aimed at physicists and members of the IT community, it is a book which will also be of interest to a wide general readership.

Spis treści

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.