Mind over machine : the power of human intuition and expertise in the era of the computer

Heburt L. Drefyus discusses and debates the use of computers in education in this book that proves to be “crucial in the development of computer technology” (Terry Winograd, Associate Professor of Computer Science, Stanford University). Arguing the power of human intuition over the technical strengths of computer technology, Hubert and Stuart Drefyus present a stunning reaffirmation of human intelligence. A compelling approach to inferiority of binary logic, Mind Over Machine presents a reassuring argument that human intuition and expertise will remain far more valuable than technology develops. Human intuition and perception are basic and essential phenomena of consciousness. As such, they will never be replicated by computers. This is the challenging notion of Hubert Dreyfus, Ph. D., archcritic of the artificial intelligence establishment. It's important to emphasize that he doesn't believe that AI is fundamentally impossible, only that the current research program is fatally flawed. Instead, he argues that to get a device (or devices) with human-like intelligence would require them to have a human-like being in the world, which would require them to have bodies more or less like ours, and social acculturation (i.e. a society) more or less like ours. This helps to explain the practical problems in implementing artificial intelligence algorithms. IN THE EARLY SIXTIES, when I began to teach philosophy at M.I.T., I had never seen a real-world digital computer, though I had read about robots in science fiction.