The Cambridge Quintet: A Work of Scientific Speculation (Helix Books)

Rating:
Summary: A Very Readable Primer on the Mind/Body Problem
Review: Turing and Wittgenstein are the protagonists here, the former promoting a strictly algorithmic and formalistic approach to mind and language while the latter is equally vehement in his insistence on a social basis for all thought and conversation. Snow, Haldane, and Schrodinger, brilliant thinkers in their own fields, are not quite up to speed on mind/machine matters at the start of the dinner, but they get in the groove by the time the entree arrives. This is a clever move on Casti's part: readers who themselves have a little catching up to do can link up with Snow, et al, and follow the discussion without undue mental strain. The basic arguments remain unresolved at dinner's end, as indeed they remain so to this day. More disturbing is the realization that, in today's jargon, Turing is advocating only the weak form of artificial intelligence, while Wittengenstein seems to be deriding only the strong form. Casti might have addressed this more fully in his Afterward. And, he might have introduced the notion of probabilistic rules in Chapter 3, rather than let the reader think that the machine can only slavishly follow a deterministic program. But these are quibbles. Casti has done a fine job of making a fascinating field accessible to a wide audience.