Title: The fifth generation fallacy : why Japan is betting its future on artificial intelligence /
Authors: Unger, J. Marshall.
Publisher: Oxford University Press,
Year: 1987
Subjects: Fifth generation computers.; Artificial intelligence.; Word processing.; Japanese language Data processing
Abstract: For several years a great deal of attention has been focused on Japan's highly publicized Fifth Generation Project, a research program aimed at the development of "intelligent" computers that can think like human beings. It has been claimed that such machines are the technology of the future, and that whoever gets them first will emerge as the new leader of the world economy. In this fascinating new book, J. Marshall Unger reveals that the West has completely misunderstood Japan's interest in Artificial Intelligence. Contrary to the common view of Japan's unassailable superiority in technology and business, perpetuated recently by popular books like Japan as Number One, Unger shows that Japanese researchers are less concerned with economic coups than with solving a fundamental problem concerning their notoriously difficult written language and the challenges it poses for computer technology.^