38 results for "Computers"

The Singularity is Near When Humans Transcend Biology

Ray Kurzweil
How Singular? How singular is the Singularity? Will it happen in an instant? Lets consider again the derivation of the word. In mathematics a singularity is a value that is beyond any limit - in essence, infinity. The Singularity as we have discussed it in this book, does not achieve infinite levels of computation, memory, as any other other measurable attribute. But it certainly achieves vast levels of all these qualities, including intelligence. With the reverse engineering of the human brain we will be able to apply the parallel, self-organizing, chaotic, algorithms of human intelligence to enormously powerful computational substrates. This intelligence will then be in a position to improve its own design, both hardware and software, in a rapidly accelerating iterative process.
Viking 2005 652 pages

Genesis: artificial intelligence, hope, and the human spirit

Kissinger, Henry,Mundie, Craig,Schmidt, Eric,Runde, Eleanor
"As it absorbs data, gains agency, and intermediates between humans and reality, AI (artificial intelligence) will help us to address enormous crises, from climate change to geopolitical conflicts to income inequality. It might well solve some of the greatest mysteries of our universe and elevate the human spirit to unimaginable heights. But it will also pose challenges on a scale and of an intensity that we have never seen--usurping our power of independent judgment and action, testing our relationship with the divine, and perhaps even spurring a new phase in human evolution. The last book of elder statesman Henry Kissinger, written with technologists Craig Mundie and Eric Schmidt, 'Genesis' charts a course between blind faith and unjustified fear as it outlines an effective strategy for navigating the age of AI."--
Little, Brown and Company 2024-11-19 249 pages

THE EMPEROR'S NEW MIND: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics

Penrose, Roger
For decades, proponents of artificial intelligence have argued that computers will soon be doing everything that a human mind can do. Admittedly, computers now play chess at the grandmaster level, but do they understand the game as we do? Can a computer eventually do everything a human mind can do? In this absorbing and frequently contentious book, Roger Penrose--eminent physicist and winner, with Stephen Hawking, of the prestigious Wolf prize--puts forward his view that there are some facets of human thinking that can never be emulated by a machine. Penrose examines what physics and mathematics can tell us about how the mind works, what they can't, and what we need to know to understand the physical processes of consciousness. He is among a growing number of physicists who think Einstein wasn't being stubborn when he said his "little finger" told him that quantum mechanics is incomplete, and he concludes that laws even deeper than quantum mechanics are essential for the operation of a mind. To support this contention, Penrose takes the reader on a dazzling tour that covers such topics as complex numbers, Turing machines, complexity theory, quantum mechanics, formal systems, Godel undecidability, phase spaces, Hilbert spaces, black holes, white holes, Hawking radiation, entropy, quasicrystals, the structure of the brain, and scores of other subjects. The Emperor's New Mind will appeal to anyone with a serious interest in modern physics and its relation to philosophical issues, as well as to physicists, mathematicians, philosophers and those on either side of the AI debate.
Oxford University Press 1990 466 pages

The mathematica book

Wolfram, Stephen
This book is intended to be a complete introduction to Mathematica. It describes essentially all the capabilities of Mathematica, assuming no prior knowledge of the system. Mathematica is a system build on a fairly small set of very powerful principles. This book describes those principles, but by no means spells out all of their implications. This book describes the standard Mathematica kernel, as it exists on all computers that run Mathematica. Most major supported features of the kernel in Mathematica Version 5 are covered in this book. Many important features of the front end are also discussed. This book describes what readers should do when interacting directly with the standard Mathematica kernel and notebook front end. Mathematica is an open software system that can be customized in a wide variety of ways. It is important to realize that this book covers only the full basic Mathematica system. If the system readers are using has been customized in any way, then Mathematica may behave differently from what is described in this book.
Wolfram Media 2003 1464 pages

Algorithms for the people: democracy in the age of AI

Simons, Josh
"Artificial intelligence and machine learning are reshaping our world. Police forces use them to decide where to send police officers, judges to decide whom to release on bail, welfare agencies to decide which children are at risk of abuse, and Facebook and Google to rank content and distribute ads. In these spheres, and many others, powerful prediction tools are changing how decisions are made, narrowing opportunities for the exercise of judgment, empathy, and creativity. In Algorithms for the People, Josh Simons flips the narrative about how we govern these technologies. Instead of examining the impact of technology on democracy, he explores how to put democracy at the heart of AI governance. Drawing on his experience as a research fellow at Harvard University, a visiting research scientist on Facebook’s Responsible AI team, and a policy advisor to the UK’s Labour Party, Simons gets under the hood of predictive technologies, offering an accessible account of how they work, why they matter, and how to regulate the institutions that build and use them. He argues that prediction is political: human choices about how to design and use predictive tools shape their effects. Approaching predictive technologies through the lens of political theory casts new light on how democracies should govern political choices made outside the sphere of representative politics. Showing the connection between technology regulation and democratic reform, Simons argues that we must go beyond conventional theorizing of AI ethics to wrestle with fundamental moral and political questions about how the governance of technology can support the flourishing of democracy." -- Publisher's description.
Princeton University Press 2025-07-08 303 pages

Feynman lectures on computation

Feynman, Richard P.
From 1983 to 1986, the legendary physicist and teacher Richard Feynman gave a course at Caltech called “Potentialities and Limitations of Computing Machines.”Although the lectures are over ten years old, most of the material is timeless and presents a “Feynmanesque” overview of many standard and some not-so-standard topics in computer science. These include computability, Turing machines (or as Feynman said, “Mr. Turing's machines”), information theory, Shannon's Theorem, reversible computation, the thermodynamics of computation, the quantum limits to computation, and the physics of VLSI devices. Taken together, these lectures represent a unique exploration of the fundamental limitations of digital computers.Feynman's philosophy of learning and discovery comes through strongly in these lectures. He constantly points out the benefits of playing around with concepts and working out solutions to problems on your own-before looking at the back of the book for the answers. As Feynman says in the lectures: “If you keep proving stuff that others have done, getting confidence, increasing complexities of your solutions-for the fun of it-then one day you'll turn around and discovers that nobody actually did that one! And that's the way to become a computer scientist.”
Addison-Wesley 1996-09-08 303 pages

The human use of human beings: cybernetics and society

Wiener, Norbert
"In 1950, mathematician-philosopher Norbert Wiener ended this classic book on the place of machines in society with a warning: "We shall never receive the right answers to our questions unless we ask the right questions.... The hour is very late, and the choice of good and evil knocks at our door." Wiener, the founder of the science of cybernetics--the study of the relationship between computers and the human nervous system--was widely mislabeled as an advocate for the automation of human life. As The Human Use for Human Beings reveals, his vision was much more complex and interesting, and is more relevant in today's world of AI than anyone could have anticipated. In his new introduction, Brian Christian aptly calls Wiener the "progenitor of contemporary AI-safety discourse." Wiener hoped that machines would release people from relentless and repetitive drudgery to achieve more creative pursuits, yet he anticipated the danger of dehumanizing and displacement. His pioneering views on the human-machine relationship as a "communicative process" are only more crucial now, as we carry in our pockets AI devices that we can literally speak to. His prescient warnings illuminate our contemporary relationships with language, art, and even social media. The Human Use of Human Beings examines the implications of cybernetics for education, law, language, science, technology, as Wiener anticipates the enormous impact--in effect, a third industrial revolution--that the computer has had on our lives."-- Provided by publisher
Mariner Classics 2025-08-12 240 pages

Computability, Complexity, and Languages, Second Edition: Fundamentals of Theoretical Computer Science

Davis, Martin,Sigal, Ron,Weyuker, Elaine J.
This introductory text covers the key areas of computer science, including recursive function theory, formal languages, and automata. It assumes a minimal background in formal mathematics. The book is divided into five parts: Computability, Grammars and Automata, Logic, Complexity, and Unsolvability. * Computability theory is introduced in a manner that makes maximum use of previous programming experience, including a "universal" program that takes up less than a page. * The number of exercises included has more than tripled. * Automata theory, computational logic, and complexity theory are presented in a flexible manner, and can be covered in a variety of different arrangements.
Morgan Kaufmann 1994 609 pages

The human test: how predictability, creativity, and the quantum mind will redefine life in the age of AI

Folman, Ron
"As data harvesting continues its exponential growth and computing power increases beyond what we can even imagine, AI and Big Data will be able to predict what we want for breakfast, what shoes we will buy, which political party we will vote for, and who we will fancy in a bar. Indeed, these deep-learning machines will know us better than we know ourselves. The day awaits when academia and big business will be able to quantify just how predictable each of us are. If indeed we are predictable like machines, to what extent are we alive, and under what definition? In The Human Test, quantum physicist Ron Folman unites findings from cognitive science, quantum physics, philosophy, and technology to offer a prescient look into this startling new era of human existence. If we are indeed found to be predictable, it will change everything we thought we knew about human nature. The Human Test strives for a new paradigm, and this new paradigm is found in human predictability. Existing monitors of general brain activity measure only very rudimentary aspects of the human experience, or what may be called human life; could the advent of a disruptive new technology bring about a much more insightful measure of who we are? While The Human Test describes a new and profound near-future impact of AI, it is rooted in a topic of paramount importance to humans: the enigma of consciousness and how it defines human life-or, what differentiates humans from all other life forms. Ultimately, The Human Test addresses some of the most fundamental questions about our species, starting with the most crucial: do we have free will, or are we merely machines? Fortunately, there is an antidote to predictability: creativity, that wondrous state of being original and inherently not predictable. Ultimately, Folman argues that if we can understand predictability, we can learn how to distance ourselves from it, and transcend to a purer idea of what human life should look like"-- Provided by publisher.
Prometheus 2025-03-25 267 pages

The Neumann compendium

Von Neumann, John
After three decades since the first nearly complete edition of John von Neumann's papers, this book is a valuable selection of those papers and excerpts of his books that are most characteristic of his activity, and reveal that of his continuous influence.The results receiving the 1994 Nobel Prizes in economy deeply rooted in Neumann's game theory are only minor traces of his exceptionally broad spectrum of creativity and stimulation.The book is organized by the specific subjects-quantum mechanics, ergodic theory, operator algebra, hydrodynamics, economics, computers, science and society. In addition, one paper which was written in German will be translated and published in English for the first time.The sections are introduced by short explanatory notes with an emphasis on recent developments based on von Neumann's contributions. An overall picture is provided by Ulam's, one of his most intimate partners in thinking, 1958 memorial lecture. Facsimilae and translations of some of his personal letters and a newly completed bibliography based on von Neumann's own careful compilation are added.
World Scientific 1995 699 pages

Post-Quantum Cryptography

Daniel J. Bernstein,Johannes Buchmann,Erik Dahmen
Quantum computers will break today's most popular public-key cryptographic systems, including RSA, DSA, and ECDSA. This book introduces the reader to the next generation of cryptographic algorithms, the systems that resist quantum-computer attacks: in particular, post-quantum public-key encryption systems and post-quantum public-key signature systems. Leading experts have joined forces for the first time to explain the state of the art in quantum computing, hash-based cryptography, code-based cryptography, lattice-based cryptography, and multivariate cryptography. Mathematical foundations and implementation issues are included. This book is an essential resource for students and researchers who want to contribute to the field of post-quantum cryptography.
Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2010-10-19 246 pages

Estimation with applications to tracking and navigation

Bar-Shalom, Yaakov
Expert coverage of the design and implementation of state estimation algorithms for tracking and navigation Estimation with Applications to Tracking and Navigation treats the estimation of various quantities from inherently inaccurate remote observations. It explains state estimator design using a balanced combination of linear systems, probability, and statistics. The authors provide a review of the necessary background mathematical techniques and offer an overview of the basic concepts in estimation. They then provide detailed treatments of all the major issues in estimation with a focus on applying these techniques to real systems. Other features include: * Problems that apply theoretical material to real-world applications * In-depth coverage of the Interacting Multiple Model (IMM) estimator * Companion DynaEst(TM) software for MATLAB(TM) implementation of Kalman filters and IMM estimators * Design guidelines for tracking filters Suitable for graduate engineering students and engineers working in remote sensors and tracking, Estimation with Applications to Tracking and Navigation provides expert coverage of this important area.
Wiley 2001-06-25 558 pages

The Structure of Intelligence: A New Mathematical Model of Mind

Goertzel, Ben
0. 0 Psychology versus Complex Systems Science Over the last century, psychology has become much less of an art and much more of a science. Philosophical speculation is out; data collection is in. In many ways this has been a very positive trend. Cognitive science (Mandler, 1985) has given us scientific analyses of a variety of intelligent behaviors: short-term memory, language processing, vision processing, etc. And thanks to molecular psychology (Franklin, 1985), we now have a rudimentary understanding of the chemical processes underlying personality and mental illness. However, there is a growing feeling-particularly among non-psychologists (see e. g. Sommerhoff, 1990) - that, with the new emphasis on data collection, something important has been lost. Very little attention is paid to the question of how it all fits together. The early psychologists, and the classical philosophers of mind, were concerned with the general nature of mentality as much as with the mechanisms underlying specific phenomena. But the new, scientific psychology has made disappointingly little progress toward the resolution of these more general questions. One way to deal with this complaint is to dismiss the questions themselves. After all, one might argue, a scientific psychology cannot be expected to deal with fuzzy philosophical questions that probably have little empirical signifi cance. It is interesting that behaviorists and cognitive scientists tend to be in agreement regarding the question of the overall structure of the mind."
Springer 2011-10-04 240 pages

The technological republic: the crisis of technology and the West

Karp, Alexander C.,Zamiska, Nicholas W.
Our most brilliant engineering minds once collaborated with government to advance world-changing technologies. Their efforts secured the West's dominant place in the geopolitical order. But that relationship has now eroded, with perilous repercussions. Today, the market rewards shallow engagement with the potential of technology. Engineers and founders build photo-sharing apps and marketing algorithms, unwittingly becoming vessels for the ambitions of others. This complacency has spread into academia, politics, and the boardroom. The result? An entire generation for whom the narrow-minded pursuit of the whims of a late capitalist economy has become their calling. In this groundbreaking treatise, Palantir co-founder and CEO Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska offer a searing critique of our collective abandonment of ambition, arguing that in order for the Westo retain its global edge-and preserve the freedoms we take for granted-the software industry must renew its commitment to addressing our most urgent challenges, including the new arms race of artificial intelligence. Government, in turn, must embrace the most effective features of the engineering mindset that has propelled Silicon Valley's success. Above all, leaders must reject intellectual fragility and preserve space for ideological confrontation. A willingness to risk the disapproval of the crowd, Karp and Zamiska contend, has everything to do with technological and economic outperformance. At once iconoclastic and rigorous, this book will also lift the veil on Palantir and its broader political project from the inside, offering a passionate call for the West to wake up to our new reality.
The Bodley Head 2025-02-20 320 pages

Scientific Computing and Differential Equations An Introduction to Numerical Methods

Gene H. Golub,James M. Ortega,Department of Computer Science James M Ortega
Scientific Computing and Differential Equations: An Introduction to Numerical Methods, is an excellent complement to Introduction to Numerical Methods by Ortega and Poole. The book emphasizes the importance of solving differential equations on a computer, which comprises a large part of what has come to be called scientific computing. It reviews modern scientific computing, outlines its applications, and places the subject in a larger context. This book is appropriate for upper undergraduate courses in mathematics, electrical engineering, and computer science; it is also well-suited to serve as a textbook for numerical differential equations courses at the graduate level. * An introductory chapter gives an overview of scientific computing, indicating its important role in solving differential equations, and placing the subject in the larger environment * Contains an introduction to numerical methods for both ordinary and partial differential equations * Concentrates on ordinary differential equations, especially boundary-value problems * Contains most of the main topics for a first course in numerical methods, and can serve as a text for this course * Uses material for junior/senior level undergraduate courses in math and computer science plus material for numerical differential equations courses for engineering/science students at the graduate level
Elsevier Science & Technology Books 1991-09-30 344 pages

Computers And Thought

Edward A. Feigenbaum,Julian Feldman
Computers And Thought by Edward A. Feigenbaum is a comprehensive book that explores the relationship between computers and human thought. The book delves into the history of computer science and artificial intelligence, and how these fields have impacted our understanding of human cognition. It also examines the ways in which computers have been used to model human thought processes, and how these models have been applied to various fields such as psychology, linguistics, and philosophy.Feigenbaum discusses the different approaches to artificial intelligence, including rule-based systems, expert systems, and neural networks. He also explores the limitations of these approaches and the challenges of creating truly intelligent machines. The book includes case studies of successful applications of artificial intelligence, such as the development of chess-playing programs and natural language processing systems.The author also addresses ethical and philosophical questions related to artificial intelligence, such as the possibility of machines surpassing human intelligence and the implications of this for society. He argues that while computers can simulate human thought processes, they cannot replicate the full range of human experience and consciousness.Overall, Computers And Thought is a thought-provoking and informative book that provides a comprehensive overview of the relationship between computers and human thought. It is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the history and future of artificial intelligence and its impact on society.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.
Literary Licensing, LLC 2012-03 548 pages