Society Of Mind

Marvin Minsky

Simon and Schuster, Mar 15, 1988 - Science - 339 pages

Marvin Minsky -- one of the fathers of computer science and cofounder of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT -- gives a revolutionary answer to the age-old question: "How does the mind work?"

Minsky brilliantly portrays the mind as a "society" of tiny components that are themselves mindless. Mirroring his theory, Minsky boldly casts The Society of Mind as an intellectual puzzle whose pieces are assembled along the way. Each chapter -- on a self-contained page -- corresponds to a piece in the puzzle. As the pages turn, a unified theory of the mind emerges, like a mosaic. Ingenious, amusing, and easy to read, The Society of Mind is an adventure in imagination.

What people are saying

Review: Society Of Mind

User Review  - Mark Harris - Goodreads

A well written general theoretical foundation for cognition as an outcome of multiple interacting agents. This is an important volume, particularly for laymen. It has been a while. I should re-read it ...

Review: The Society Of Mind

User Review  - Neven - Goodreads

A book like no other. 270 one-page essays carefully outlining Minsky's theory of the mind. These range in topic and complexity from casual anecdotes and folk reasoning to dense, neologism-laden ...

Contents

• PROLOGUE: 17
• WHOLES AND PARTS: 24
• CONFLICT AND COMPROMISE: 32
• THE SELF: 38
• INDIVIDUALITY: 47
• PROBLEMS AND GOALS: 70
• A THEORY OF MEMORY: 81
• PAPERTS PRINCIPLE: 98
• THE SHAPE OF SPACE: 108
• LEARNING MEANING: 118
• SEEING AND BELIEVING: 132
• REFORMULATION: 140
• CONSCIOUSNESS AND MEMORY: 150
• EMOTION: 162
• DEVELOPMENT: 173
• REASONING: 185
• WORDS AND IDEAS: 195
• CONTEXT AND AMBIGUITY: 206
• EXPRESSION: 225
• COMPARISONS: 237
• FRAMES: 243
• FRAMEARRAYS: 253
• LANGUAGEFRAMES: 260
• CENSORS AND JOKES: 273
• THE MIND AND THE WORLD: 282
• THE REALMS OF THOUGHT: 291
• MENTAL MODELS: 300

About the author

Marvin Minsky is the Donner Professor of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he cofounded the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and former president of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Society Of Mind; A Touchstone Book
• Author: Marvin Minsky
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Simon and Schuster, 1988
• ISBN: 0671657135, 9780671657130
• Length: 339 pages
• Subjects: Psychology / Cognitive Psychology; Science / General; Science / Philosophy & Social Aspects