4 ms·

The Society of Mind Video Lectures

82 points by mutor 12y ago

vmmenon 12y ago
Its up on iTunesU as well ...
- psbp 12y ago
  And youtube, which is finally an iTunesU replacement now that it has background listening.
  - 3rd3 12y ago
    Odd, my App Store still displays the old version with 2/5 stars mostly due to the lack of multitasking support.
    - psbp 12y ago
      They probably haven't updated the iOS app yet.
gumby 12y ago
That's funny to see this -- I just saw Marvin yesterday. He's getting frail but still has that devilish sense of humor and deadpan delivery.
EdwardCoffin 12y ago
Can anyone familiar with this book say how well it has aged? It's been on my shelves, unread (mostly), for years, and I keep wondering whether I should still aspire to read it.
- rspeer 12y ago
  I'd say that the book started as a bunch of untried ideas for how to represent interesting processes that show up in cognition... and it's largely the same now. It doesn't work very well if you take it as an instruction manual for how to make AI, especially because it describes many processes that we know no good way to compute. But Minsky's writing represents the currently-hibernating field we call "good old-fashioned AI" (GOFAI). What makes it "good"? GOFAI contains ideas about what we wish AI could do that we've kind of abandoned in the present, not because we don't want to do them anymore, but because they're very hard, and there are easier ways to get results. The current wave of machine learning techniques will probably give diminishing returns one day. Going back to a GOFAI text such as Society of Mind is a way to dream about what comes after that. In the extremely optimistic view, it might help you recognize an opportunity to do something new with AI when a new computational technique makes it possible.
  - EdwardCoffin 12y ago
    Thanks, GOFAI is indeed the type of AI that I am interested in, so I will try to finally read it.
    - maaku 12y ago
      "The Emotion Machine" is an updated view of Society of Mind. If you already have SoM I'd recommend reading it first though.
- avyfain 12y ago
  After reading GEB this summer, I got hooked on ideas of AI and knowledge representation. Not an AI expert by any standard, but I am reading it right now and enjoying it quite a bit. As mentioned by others in this thread, the book itself is a set of loosely connected ideas. Seems like a good overview of the field of AI. In addition, Minsky is a great writer, and brings all sorts of examples of developmental psychology that are worth learning about.

82 points by mutor 12y ago

vmmenon 12y ago

Its up on iTunesU as well ...

psbp 12y ago
And youtube, which is finally an iTunesU replacement now that it has background listening.
- 3rd3 12y ago
  Odd, my App Store still displays the old version with 2/5 stars mostly due to the lack of multitasking support.
  - psbp 12y ago
    They probably haven't updated the iOS app yet.

gumby 12y ago

That's funny to see this -- I just saw Marvin yesterday. He's getting frail but still has that devilish sense of humor and deadpan delivery.

EdwardCoffin 12y ago

Can anyone familiar with this book say how well it has aged? It's been on my shelves, unread (mostly), for years, and I keep wondering whether I should still aspire to read it.

rspeer 12y ago
I'd say that the book started as a bunch of untried ideas for how to represent interesting processes that show up in cognition... and it's largely the same now. It doesn't work very well if you take it as an instruction manual for how to make AI, especially because it describes many processes that we know no good way to compute. But Minsky's writing represents the currently-hibernating field we call "good old-fashioned AI" (GOFAI). What makes it "good"? GOFAI contains ideas about what we wish AI could do that we've kind of abandoned in the present, not because we don't want to do them anymore, but because they're very hard, and there are easier ways to get results. The current wave of machine learning techniques will probably give diminishing returns one day. Going back to a GOFAI text such as Society of Mind is a way to dream about what comes after that. In the extremely optimistic view, it might help you recognize an opportunity to do something new with AI when a new computational technique makes it possible.
- EdwardCoffin 12y ago
  Thanks, GOFAI is indeed the type of AI that I am interested in, so I will try to finally read it.
  - maaku 12y ago
    "The Emotion Machine" is an updated view of Society of Mind. If you already have SoM I'd recommend reading it first though.
avyfain 12y ago
After reading GEB this summer, I got hooked on ideas of AI and knowledge representation. Not an AI expert by any standard, but I am reading it right now and enjoying it quite a bit. As mentioned by others in this thread, the book itself is a set of loosely connected ideas. Seems like a good overview of the field of AI. In addition, Minsky is a great writer, and brings all sorts of examples of developmental psychology that are worth learning about.