After Thought: The Computer Challenge to Human Intelligence
Authors: James Bailey
Venue:  (1997)

:Through the first fifty years of the computer revolution, suggests James Bailey in this strikingly original and thought-provoking book, scientists have been trying to program electronic circuits to process information the same way humans do. Doing so has no doubt smoothed our transition into the computer age by reassuring us all that underlying every new computer capability, no matter how miraculously fast or complex, are human thought processes and logic. But cutting-edge computer scientists are coming to see that electronic circuits really are alien, that the difference between the human mind and computer capability is not merely one of degree (how fast?) but of kind (how?). Computers, suggests Bailey, "think" best when their "thoughts" are allowed to emerge from the interplay of millions of tiny operations all interacting with one another in parallel, a situation that would drive the most profound and dedicated human thinker crazy. Because they can organize, interchange, retrieve, and even forget information differently than humans do, computers can manage virtually unlimited databases and use almost unlimited processing capabilities. Why, then, if computers bring to the table such very different strengths and weaknesses, are we still trying to program them to think like humans? A work that ranges widely over the history of ideas from Galileo to Newton to Darwin yet is just as comfortable in the cutting-edge world of parallel processing that is at this very moment yielding a new form of intelligence, After Thought describes why the real computer age is just beginning. The first uses of this new intelligence, Bailey notes, are likely to be those that involve an immense number of interacting variables that operate in parallel and adapt to changing circumstances, such as environmental or economic forecasting, or complex problems in biology. After Thought will fascinate artists, because it argues that computers will "think" in terms of pictures and patterns, not numbers; provoke philosophers, because it challenges the primacy, and the hegemony, of humans as reasoners; thrill cyberspace junkies, especially those who see the Net as the ultimate parallel processing machine, because it confirms what they always knew -- that machines hold the key to a new future; infuriate mathematicians, who may lose their monopoly as predictive technicians; disturb educators, because it suggests that we take a sharp turn on a long road and accustom the next generation to parallel as well as sequential thinking; and fascinate all and terrify some of us who must come to terms with the new world the computer revolution has begun and will continue to create. This is a book no one in today's society can afford to ignore."The wonder of Mr. Bailey's book is that he makes us aware of things abstract that all our lives we have been trained to think of as concrete."--New York Times"A book that is at the same time a fascinating history of computation and science, and a deep analysis of the major shifts of human thought as a result of this history."--David Waltz, NEC Research Institute and Brandeis University"Bailey understands what makes the digital revolution truly revolutionary."--Mitchel Resnick, Media Lab, MIT"A frightening and exciting account of how technology has transformed and will transform us."--John B. Cobb, Jr., Claremont Graduate School"Essential for all interested in computerized problem-solving."--J. Beidler,Choice The ACM Portal is published by the Association for Computing Machinery. Copyright © 2010 ACM, Inc. Terms of Usage Privacy Policy Code of Ethics Contact Us Useful downloads: Adobe Acrobat QuickTime Windows Media Player Real Player