Although science has made considerable progress in discovering the neural basis of cognition, how consciousness arises remains elusive. In this book, Pennartz analyzes which aspects of conscious experience can be peeled away to access its core: the relationship between brain processes and the qualitative nature of consciousness. Pennartz traces the problem back to its historical foundations and…
The untold history of women and computing: how pioneering women succeeded in a field shaped by gender biases. Today, women earn a relatively low percentage of computer science degrees and hold proportionately few technical computing jobs. Meanwhile, the stereotype of the male “computer geek” seems to be everywhere in popular culture. Few people know that women were a significant presence…
The future is here: Self-driving cars are on the streets, an algorithm gives you movie and TV recommendations, IBM's Watson triumphed on Jeopardy over puny human brains, computer programs can be trained to play Atari games. But how do all these thingswork? In this book, Sean Gerrish offers an engaging and accessible overview of the breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and machine learning t…
"Bringing the history of modern computing fully up to date, from new applications to scientific computation to video games and the ubiquitous smartphone"--OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.
Most aspects of our private and social lives--our safety, the integrity of the financial system, the functioning of utilities and other services, and national security--now depend on computing. But how can we know that this computing is trustworthy? In Mechanizing Proof, Donald MacKenzie addresses this key issue by investigating the interrelations of computing, risk, and mathematical proof over…
Media have been central to government efforts to reinforce sovereignty and define national identity, but globalization is fundamentally altering media practices, institutions, and content. More than the activities of large conglomerates, globalization entails competition among states as well as private entities to dominate the world's consciousness. Changes in formal and informal rules, in addi…
"In recent years, many approximate methods have been developed for analyzing queueing models of complex computer systems. These ad hoc methods usually focus on specific aspects of system operation, and appear to be different from one another, making it difficult to see the underlying principles of model development, to understand the relationship between different models of the same system, or …
Functional genomics--the deconstruction of the genome to determine the biological function of genes and gene interactions--is one of the most fruitful new areas of biology. The growing use of DNA microarrays allows researchers to assess the expression of tens of thousands of genes at a time. This quantitative change has led to qualitative progress in our ability to understand regulatory process…
Microcircuits, functional modules that act as elementary processing units bridging single cells to systems and behavior, could provide the link between neurons and global brain function. Microcircuits are designed to serve particular functions; examples of these functional modules include the cortical columns in sensory cortici, glomeruli in the olfactory systems of insects and vertebrates, and…
Parallel distributed processing is transforming the field of cognitive science. Microcognition provides a clear, readable guide to this emerging paradigm from a cognitive philosopher's point of view. It explains and explores the biological basis of PDP, its psychological importance, and its philosophical relevance.