The Society of Mind
The Society of Mind (literally: Die Gesellschaft des Geistes , German title: Mentopolis ) is a book and a theory by Marvin Minsky .
Minsky develops a comprehensive model of human intelligence in a step-by-step process and tries to transfer this to the field of artificial intelligence . His core thesis is that unintelligent ( mindless ), simple building blocks, agents , can build up complexity through interactions . It describes how various interactions that are assigned to a specific problem solution can be understood as "communities of agents", hence the title "Society of Mind".
The book (first edition 1986) is the first comprehensible description of Minsky's Society of Mind theory, which he began to develop in the early 1970s. The book consists of 270 independent essays, which are divided into 30 chapters.
While explaining his Society of Mind thesis, Minsky introduces a number of ideas and concepts. Minsky develops theories about how processes such as language , memories and learning could work, but also deals with questions such as consciousness , free will , and self-awareness . Therefore, it is often viewed as a philosophical rather than an information technology book.
One of Minsky's core theses is that intelligence is what brains do ( “minds are what brains do” ). The Society of Mind theory regards the human psyche and every other naturally occurring cognitive system as a large number (society) of individual simple processes that Minsky calls "agents".
The theory is summed up by the following quote from Minsky:
“ What magical trick makes us intelligent?
The trick is that there is no trick. The power of intelligence stems from our vast diversity, not from any single, perfect principle. "
“What magic trick makes us intelligent?
The trick is that there is no trick. The power of intelligence comes from our immense diversity and not from a single perfect principle. "
literature
- Marvin Minsky: The Society of Mind . 1988, ISBN 0-671-65713-5 .