Artificial Experts: Social Knowledge and Intelligent Machines (Inside Technology) [Paperback]

Harry M. Collins (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0262531151 | ISBN-13: 978-0262531153 | Publication Date: November 13, 1992

In Artificial Experts, Collins explains what computers can't do, but he also studies the ordinary and extraordinary things that they can do. He argues that the machines we create are limited because we cannot reproduce in symbols what every community knows, yet we give our machines abilities by the way we embed them in our society. He unfolds a compelling account of the difference between human action and machine intelligence, the core of which is a witty and learned explanation of knowledge itself, of what communities know and the ways in which they know it. H. M. Collins is Professor of Sociology, Head of the School of Social Sciences, and Director of the Science Studies Centre at the University of Bath.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Over the past fifteen years, Harry Collins has been in the forefront of a handful of mostly British sociologists who are revolutionizing our understanding of science by taking seriously a commonplace suggestion, namely, that science should be studied just like any other social phenomenon." Steve Fuller Times Literary Supplement

"H. M. Collins makes his case without the polemical excesses of Hubert Dreyfus or John Searle. Unlike them, he seems to have genuinely attempted an experiment in knowledge engineering." Kamesh Ramakrishna

About the Author

H. M. Collins is Professor of Sociology, Head of the School of Social Sciences, and Director of the Science Studies Centre at the University of Bath.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (November 13, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262531151
• ISBN-13: 978-0262531153
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,727,848 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.