Computing the Mind: How the Mind Really Works

by Shimon Edelman

In a culmination of humanity's millennia-long quest for self knowledge, the sciences of the mind are now in a position to offer concrete, empirically validated answers to the most fundamental questions about human nature. What does it mean to be a mind? How is the mind related to the brain? How are minds shaped by their embodiment and environment? What are the principles behind cognitive functions such as perception, memory, language, thought, and consciousness?

By analyzing the tasks facing any sentient being that is subject to stimulation and a pressure to act, Shimon Edelman identifies computation as the common denominator in the emerging answers to all these questions. Any system composed of elements that exchange signals with each other and occasionally with the rest of the world can be said to be engaged in computation. A brain composed of neurons is one example of a system that computes, and the computations that the neurons collectively carry out constitute the brain's mind.

Edelman presents a computational account of the entire spectrum of cognitive phenomena that constitutes the mind. He begins with sentience, and uses examples from visual perception to demonstrate that it must, at its very core, be a type of computation. Throughout his account, Edelman acknowledges the human mind's biological origins. Along the way, he also demystifies traits such as creativity, language, and individual and collective consciousness, and hints at how naturally evolved minds can transcend some of their limitations by moving to computational substrates other than brains. The account that Edelman gives in this book is accessible, yet unified and rigorous, and the big picture he presents is supported by evidence ranging from neurobiology to computer science. The book should be read by anyone seeking a comprehensive and current introduction to cognitive psychology.

Genres: Neuroscience, Psychology

627 pages, Hardcover

First published August 20, 2008

About the author

If one takes the death of Stalin to mark the end of the first, darker half of
the 20th century, I was born just as its second half was getting under way, in the
evil empire that he built and that managed to survive for thirty-odd years after the
emperor kicked the bucket. In 1973, just ahead of the Yom Kippur War, my family
emigrated to Israel, where I graduated from high school. I was drafted into the
army and underwent basic training, then got a B.S. in electrical engineering and
returned to the army for five more years (not counting reserve duty). After
discharge (highest rank attained: major, reserve), I went back to school and
earned an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in computer science. Since then, I taught and
worked in research at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, at MIT, at the
University of Sussex at Brighton in the UK, and at Cornell University, where I
have been a tenured full professor of psychology since 1999. I have also held
visiting positions at Brown University, at MIT, at Tel Aviv University, and at Korea
University in Seoul.

My long-standing research and teaching interests focus on understanding
the brain/mind – a problem that, in my view, encompasses the entirety of the
human condition. It is because of my desire to understand, both scientifically and
intuitively, what makes us human that my research projects are so diverse: I
have worked on specific problems in visual perception, in robotics and AI, in
motor control, in language acquisition, in memory, and in consciousness, striving
at all times to integrate “extracurricular” interests such as my love of nature and
of literature with the science that I am engaged in. My work has led to over a
hundred refereed publications, three edited volumes, and two monographs,
including Computing the Mind: How the Mind Really Works (Oxford University
Press, 2008). Of these, the last one, The Happiness of Pursuit (Basic Books,
2012) is a trade book, which became a Kirkus Reviews starred selection and
“Must-Read in new nonfiction” when it came out.

Reviews

[Joris · Rating 3 out of 5]

autorius perskaitė daug knygų ir jis tau leidžia tai žinoti

[Chris S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible in scope, attempting to elucidate all of the mind's activities from 'mere' perception to free will and consciousness. Despite being pretty dense, I feel its variety comes with a bit of a lack of clarity, and Edelman himself acknowledges this work as a wide panorama but essentially an incomplete one. That being said, it's a great wide-ranging introduction to anyone looking to understand the computational basis of thought.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in draft form for his class. A dense tome, but illuminatingly rich.

[Boris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deeply enlightening!