sssurfer Posted July 13, 2009 Report Share Posted July 13, 2009 For the fews of you that can read Italian language, I would like to point out a book of a good friend of mine who recently got it published after a 15 years long work. Title: "Coscienza Artificiale" (Artificial Consciousness), Aracne Ed., Roma, 2009. ISBN: 8854823074, ISBN-13: 9788854823075. It explains how our brain/mind works and, differently from any other book in the field, the proposed model is confirmed (well, actually it was developed) by simulations with neural networks and genetic alghoritms. The authors are no phylosophers or psychologists, they are neurologists and neuro-physiologists, with a very concrete background, a teacher and a lecturer in university schools of medicine and engineering. This book is no phylosophy or "just-so" stories, it is a scientific book. My friend told me they are now considering to make a shorter and simpler version in English language, and release it to the public domain as an e-book. I hope they do so, but it will still require a year or two, so to anyone that is interested in the topic and is able -- or has access to anyone able -- to read Italian, I take the liberty to point out this first release too. You may also see a presentation, and download the 1st chapter in pdf (both in Italian, unfortunately), on this webpage. A translation of the index (w/ apologies for my poor English): 7 Introduction 17 FIRST PART - Evolution, Neurobiology, Connectionism 19 Cap. I - Towards complexity 29 Cap. II - Replicants are among us 35 Cap. III - Is reality knowable? 39 Cap. IV - Timespace 45 Cap. V - Environmental interaction 49 Cap. VI - Definitions 51 Cap. VII - Beliefs 55 Cap. VIII - Communication 61 Cap. IX - Neurons 67 Cap. X - Nervous systems 79 Cap. XI - Connectionism 87 Cap. XII - Artificial neural networks 117 Cap. XIII - Memory and learning in the nervous system - 1 135 Cap. XIV - Memory and learning in the nervous system - 2 181 Cap. XV - Understanding Thinking Reasoning 235 Cap. XVI - Emotions 237 Cap. XVII - Awareness: the seventh sense? 259 Cap. XVIII - Will and free will 265 Cap. XIX - Consciousness Q&A 283 Cap. XX - Thinking machines 289 Cap. XXI - Testing awareness 299 SECOND PART - Simulations with neural networks 303 Unsupervised sensory-motor models - Genetic learning 305 Cap. XXII - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.