The book of minds : how to understand ourselves and other beings, from animals to AI to aliens / Philip Ball.
Material type:
TextPublisher: Chicago, IL : The University of Chicago Press, 2022Description: 500 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780226795874
- 022679587X
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
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Main Library | NonFiction | 153 B187 | Available | 33111010853576 | ||||
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Adult Book
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Northport Library | NonFiction | 153 B187 | Available | 33111009439064 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Popular science writer Philip Ball explores a range of sciences to map our answers to a huge, philosophically rich question: How do we even begin to think about minds that are not human?
Sciences from zoology to astrobiology, computer science to neuroscience, are seeking to understand minds in their own distinct disciplinary realms. Taking a uniquely broad view of minds and where to find them--including in plants, aliens, and God--Philip Ball pulls the pieces together to explore what sorts of minds we might expect to find in the universe. In so doing, he offers for the first time a unified way of thinking about what minds are and what they can do, by locating them in what he calls the "space of possible minds." By identifying and mapping out properties of mind without prioritizing the human, Ball sheds new light on a host of fascinating questions: What moral rights should we afford animals, and can we understand their thoughts? Should we worry that AI is going to take over society? If there are intelligent aliens out there, how could we communicate with them? Should we? Understanding the space of possible minds also reveals ways of making advances in understanding some of the most challenging questions in contemporary science: What is thought? What is consciousness? And what (if anything) is free will?
Informed by conversations with leading researchers, Ball's brilliant survey of current views about the nature and existence of minds is more mind-expanding than we could imagine. In this fascinating panorama of other minds, we come to better know our own.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Minds and where to find them -- The space of possible minds -- All the things you are -- Waking up to the world -- Solomon's secret -- Aliens on the doorstep -- Machine minds -- Out of this world -- Free to choose -- How to know it all.
"In this book, popular science writer Philip Ball surveys a range of sciences to map our answers to a big, philosophically rich question, one with practical and ethical consequences for today. How do we even begin to think about minds that are not human? Sciences from astronomy to biology, computer science to neuroscience, are mapping the mind in their own disciplinary territories, and Ball pulls the pieces together so that we can appreciate the full picture-the "mindscape" or "space of possible minds." This map makes plain what sorts of minds we might expect to find in the universe. By plotting properties of mind without prioritizing the human, he sheds welcome, new light on a host of fascinating questions: What moral rights should we afford animals? Can we communicate with them? Should we worry that AI is going to take over and run society according to its own agenda? If there are intelligent aliens out there, how would we know? Could we communicate with them? Should we? Understanding the mindscape also reveals ways of making advances in understanding some of the most challenging questions in contemporary science: What is thought? What is consciousness? And what (if anything) is free will? Before Ball turns to other minds, however, he addresses the human mind: what is it? Is it different from the brain? From one person to the next? In this fascinating book of minds, we come to better know our own"-- Provided by publisher.