Want to understand how your mind really works? Forget the old metaphor of the brain as a powerful computer sitting in your skull, processing information like a biological CPU. In his latest book, “The Experience Machine,” Andy Clark – one of cognitive science’s most influential thinkers – shows us why this view is fundamentally wrong and why that matters more than ever in the age of artificial intelligence.
As Large Language Models and other AI systems achieve increasingly impressive results, it’s tempting to think we’re closing in on human-like intelligence. However, Clark’s work reveals a crucial insight: human intelligence isn’t just about pattern recognition or processing power. It’s deeply embodied, embedded in our physical interactions with the world, and driven by a fundamental principle called active inference – our constant attempt to match our expectations with reality.
Category: book review
-
The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality
-
A royal road to algorithms – Louridas’ Algorithms
There is no royal road to Geometry, said Euclid when Ptolemy I Soter asked him if there is a shorter way to geometry than going through Euclid’s Elements. Thanks to Panos Louridas, we have a royal road to algorithms. Complete beginners with no background in programming can start with Algorithms in the Essential Knowledge Series, more advanced coders can learn a lot from Real-World Algorithms.
(more…) -
Book review: Data Structures the Fun Way
These days when you can find a package for every problem you encounter, learning about algorithms and data structures seems to be a waste of time. But finding the right package or knowing the best data structure to handle your problem most efficiently cannot be achieved without knowing about data structures. Jeremy Kubica’s Data Structures the Fun Way is a fun intro to the topic for self-taught programmers and data scientists.
(more…)