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The cover of The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics (Popular Science)

The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics (Popular Science)

Penrose, Roger

Can a computer ever have a mind, or does human understanding need something that no algorithm can supply?

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At a glance

Author
Penrose, Roger

Why read it

  • You will be able to weigh the claim that thinking is just computation, instead of taking it on trust
  • You will see what an algorithm is, and why some questions of truth may lie outside what any algorithm can do
  • You will understand why one leading physicist suspects consciousness depends on physics that science does not yet understand

Who it is for

  • A software engineer who wonders if AI can truly understand
  • A reader who wants physics and philosophy in one book
  • Someone unsure whether machines will ever think

Contents

  1. NOTE TO THE READER: on reading mathematical equations
  2. FIGURE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  3. FOREWORD by Martin Gardner
  4. PREFACE
  5. PROLOGUE
  6. 1 CAN A COMPUTER HAVE A MIND?
  7. 2 ALGORITHMS AND TURING MACHINES
  8. 3 MATHEMATICS AND REALITY
  9. 4 TRUTH, PROOF, AND INSIGHT
  10. 5 THE CLASSICAL WORLD
  11. 6 QUANTUM MAGIC AND QUANTUM MYSTERY
  12. 7 COSMOLOGY AND THE ARROW OF TIME
  13. 8 IN SEARCH OF QUANTUM GRAVITY
  14. 9 REAL BRAINS AND MODEL BRAINS
  15. 10 WHERE LIES THE PHYSICS OF MIND?
  16. EPILOGUE

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