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This course introduces the fundamentals and contemporary developments of artificial intelligence (AI) as well as brain research and discusses the philosophical issues arising from these rapidly developing research fields. Topics include major approaches of AI, the Turing test, Searle and Dreyfus' critique of AI; fundamentals of neuroscience, techniques of brain imaging, the mapping of brain functions; the mind-brain relation, philosophical theories of mind and the nature of mental phenomena like consciousness and free will. The aim is to help students to reflect on the potentials and limits of AI and brain research and to achieve a deeper understanding of ourselves as human beings.
This book explores the full breadth and depth of the field of artificial intelligence, which encompasses logic, probability and continuous mathematics, perception, reasoning, learning, and action, and everything from microelectronic devices to robotic planetary explorers. The main unifying theme is the idea of an intelligent agent, aiming to convey the ideas that have emerged over the past fifty years of AI research and the past two millennia of related work. Pseudocode algorithms are included to make the key ideas concrete. There are 27 chapters divided into seven parts, and exercises are given at the end of each chapter.
This book introduces the philosophical issues of artificial intelligence. The first half of the book is aimed at articulating the theory which accommodates the possibility of artificial intelligence, with the efforts on developing a technical account of computation, an introduction to the philosophy of mind, and a rudimentary understanding of functional neuroanatomy. The second half is aimed at comparing what we know of the human rational and linguistic capacities with methods for implementing these computationally, by examining how computers can be programmed, more advanced philosophical material concerning the notions of meaning and representation, and artificial neural networks.
This book introduces the key questions and current state of brain research, and shows that, though we know a surprising amount, we are still far from having a complete understanding. It describes the historical developments behind our understanding of what the brain is and what it does, and explores the key questions neuroscientists face concerning the relationship between the brain and thought, memories, perceptions, and actions. The topics discussed range from how we sense things and how memories are stored, to the evolution of brains and nervous systems from primitive organisms, as well as altered mental states, brain-computer hybrids, and the future of brain research.
The text offers mathematical and conceptual background, covering relevant concepts in linear algebra, probability theory and information theory, numerical computation, and machine learning. It describes deep learning techniques used by practitioners in industry, including deep feedforward networks, regularization, optimization algorithms, convolutional networks, sequence modeling, and practical methodology; and it surveys such applications as natural language processing, speech recognition, computer vision, online recommendation systems, bioinformatics, and videogames. Finally, the book offers research perspectives, covering such theoretical topics as linear factor models, autoencoders, representation learning, structured probabilistic models, Monte Carlo methods, the partition function, approximate inference, and deep generative models.
This book reflects the development of the past decade in the field of philosophy of mind. It explores a range of issues in the philosophy of mind, with the mind-body problem as the main focus, also touching on the status of psychology and cognitive science. After an introductory chapter, the book proceeds to discuss the following topics- Descartes’ Dualism, Behaviorism, the psychoneural identity theory, machine functionalism, causal-theoretical functionalism, mental causation, mental content, consciousness, and the mind-body problem. This third edition includes two new chapters on the nature of consciousness and the status of consciousness.
This book gives insights into how the human nervous system operates, with a balance of animal, human, and clinical studies that discuss the dynamic field of neuroscience from cellular signaling to cognitive function. Opening with an overview of the nervous system, the book subsequently introduces neural signaling, sensation and sensory processing, movement and its central control, the changing brain, and complex brain functions and cognitive neuroscience. The book features 900 illustrations that help visualize the brain. This Sixth Edition provides an expanded Cognitive Neuroscience unit which includes new chapters on Attention and Decision Making.
