Perceived existential threats to humanity have a way of concentrating the mind. The current wave of concern about AI has precedents in earlier technological advances - the atomic bomb, for example. I am reminded of events around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. As a newly minted college graduate armed with a degree in mathematics from a…
The ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes brought a plucked chicken to Plato’s Academy to demonstrate the inadequacy of defining the human being as a featherless biped. Throughout history, demonstrations of this sort have been made necessary by efforts or events suggesting that humans are not particularly exceptional. In our own time Marvin Minsky, a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence…
Lessons from Public Education on Propaganda After World War II, many public schools in America offered instruction in propaganda and persuasive techniques. Educators believed that the exercise of critical judgment about the leaders we choose to vote for and the products we opt to buy as consumers is essential for personal success in life and for the well being of…
The journal AI & Society has just published a review of Computers and Society in the Past Half Century: The Conquest of Will Revisited by Abbe Mowshowitz. The review, written by editor, Dr. Karamjit Gill under the title “The Myth of Mechanical Intelligence,” gives a detailed and comprehensive overview of the content and main points of the book. The reviewer…
Almost fifty years ago, Dr. Abbe Mowshowitz wrote the first comprehensive critical study of social issues in computing, The Conquest of Will (1976). This new book revisits this seminal study, featuring an overview of technological advances over the past half century, and provides a unique comparison between what was believed and expected of computers back in 1976, and actual outcomes up to the present time.