Customer Reviews

The Cambridge Quintet: A Work Of Scientific Speculation (Helix Books)

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Mr. Casti has crafted a wonderful book for readers, and not just those whose interest lay in Scientific "what if" scenarios. His topic is Artificial Intelligence and the probability it will become reality. The specific question is "Can we build a machine that could duplicate human cognitive processes?" The host for the evening is C.P. Snow, and his guests for dinner and debate are physicist Erwin Schrodinger, wave mechanics inventor, Ludwig Wittgenstein, 20th Century philosopher of language, geneticist J.B.S. Haldane, and finally Alan Turing, Mathematician and Father of modern computing.

Keep reading! You do not need to be a student of any of these fields or know who these men are, prior to embarking on this hypothetical snowy evening in Cambridge. And that is the genius of this book, or perhaps one element of it. For not only does Mr. Costi pick a topic that is still as relevant a debate today as it "was" in 1949, he makes the debates readable, and he introduces people who are as important, or even more critical than the names we attach to computers today.

The true genius is of course Mr. Costi, for not only does he posit the question, he selects great minds, and then uses his own to create a dialogue that demonstrates his vast knowledge of these men and their fields. Finally he places his creation in front of readers, not a select group, rather for anyone who is inquisitive. Winston Churchill asked a guest at his home one night to explain the "Theory Of Relativity" in one minute using words with only one syllable. His guest Frederick Lindemann proceeded to do just that. Mr. Costi uses words that violate the singular syllable rule, and if anyone could speed read the book in 60 seconds their effort would be pointless.

History can be boring or Martin Gilbert, Daniel J. Boorstin, Amanda Foreman, or Ron Chernow to name just a few can write it. The same can be said of science or the Law. The subjects can be cloaked in mystery not because they are complex, rather the skill to communicate what they are, is difficult for many, impossible for most, and fortunately for readers there are a few greater minds/communicators who can open these portals of knowledge.

The Hubble Telescope documents phenomena that are visually awe-inspiring. But until a Dr. Hawkings brings some meaning to them, they are just pretty pictures, images that show space in unimaginable dimensions, and objects that defy all commonly held thought.

Great book, great read, highly recommended!

Turing and Wittgenstein are the protagonists here, the former promoting a strictly algorithmic and formalistic approach to mind and language while the latter is equally vehement in his insistence on a social basis for all thought and conversation. Snow, Haldane, and Schrodinger, brilliant thinkers in their own fields, are not quite up to speed on mind/machine matters at the start of the dinner, but they get in the groove by the time the entree arrives. This is a clever move on Casti's part: readers who themselves have a little catching up to do can link up with Snow, et al, and follow the discussion without undue mental strain. The basic arguments remain unresolved at dinner's end, as indeed they remain so to this day. More disturbing is the realization that, in today's jargon, Turing is advocating only the weak form of artificial intelligence, while Wittengenstein seems to be deriding only the strong form. Casti might have addressed this more fully in his Afterward. And, he might have introduced the notion of probabilistic rules in Chapter 3, rather than let the reader think that the machine can only slavishly follow a deterministic program. But these are quibbles. Casti has done a fine job of making a fascinating field accessible to a wide audience.

This book will delight those already acquainted with Wittgenstein and Turing's perspectives. Easy to read, written in a very enjoyable style by John Casti (whom "Paradigms lost" constitute the masterpiece in my view), it nonetheless describes in a very sharp way the main arguments on both sides of the debate. Maybe too weak in the conclusion.

Casti starts with the question "can a machine be made to think" and moves quickly into numerous tangential areas in computational theory and the philosophy mind. That said, the book entertains and enlightens, fluidly inserting some of the most famous "thought experiments" and ideas relating to artificial intelligence. Highly recommend for those with no detailed knowledge of the topics. For those who are already familiar with the Turing test, Chinese room argument, and Wittgenstein's thoughts on the "language game" this short book provides an entertaining reminder of how these ideas fit together in the context of AI. Unfortunately the book cannot explore any of the topics in depth, given that Casti holds true to the venue.

I confess a weakness for this kind of format, a fictional situation in which historical figures meet around a table and argue their various points of view face-to face. This short book is an especially nice example of the genre, with the protagonists meeting around the dinner table in Cambridge on a stormy English night in 1949. It recalls a certain variety of detective story, and in a way that's what it is. But the essential mystery, what it means to be a thinking human being, is not finally solved.

Many of the key issues connected with language, thought, and the possibilities for machine intelligence are touched on in these conversations, giving the reader a good sense of the kinds of philosophical and technical questions that remain unresolved even today. The mode of presentation is probably about as entertaining a one as possible for an introduction to this kind of material. At a minimum, I think your reaction to the book will tell you whether you have enough interest in the subject matter to pursue it much further. But even if you don't, you will have encountered a great many stimulating ideas in these pages. And you will know enough not to have to sit there like a stupid lump should the subject of AI (Artificial Intelligence) come up in conversation. The book does not go as far as some reviewers would have liked, but I think it nicely does the introductory overview job it set out to do.

My only quibble is that while Chomsky's later ideas about language are presented (Casti admits the anachronism as a way to get certain ideas into the conversation), behavioral psychology is not given the benefit of a similar updating. Skinner's work on verbal behavior was quite sophisticated, much akin to the view here put forth by Wittgenstein, and far from the old Watsonian stimulus-response version of behaviorism used as a foil in the book. That was a difference, by the way, that Chomsky never managed to comprehend.

In this book, John Casti, who in my opinion may well turn out to be one of the foremost science writers of all time, weaves a tale about an extraordinary meeting...that never took place, but could well have. Five outstanding intellectuals-C.P.Snow: Physicist, Erwin Schrodinger: Physicist, J B S Haldane: Biologist, Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosopher and Alan Turing: Mathematician-meet for dinner at Cambridge University's Christ College in Snow's rooms, at his request, for profound discussion about a topic that could change the future of humanity forever. The topic: Artificial Intelligence. Can machines think? During the intense discussion that follows, we get to read about a tour de force presented by Casti, just like it would be, had such a meeting actually taken place. As these great minds argue back and forth about this central question, we are transformed to post war England, and the beginnings of modern day computer science. Almost everything they talk about had, or will have far reaching consequences. Some of the idea Turing talks about, such as algorithms, are so commonplace in the modern world, that we take them absolutely for granted. Other related questions, such as the origin and structure of language and its relation to computational processes, are still profound unsolved questions. Casti makes everything sound extremely realistic, and does a great job at it. His choice of characters for this debate is superb, and one which cannot easily be imagined, but which in hindsight is perfect. His portraying of their personalities is impeccable, and represents the diverse backgrounds which each of them brings to the dinner table. His language is brilliant,and so is the humour.
What about the conclusion? There can be none for such a complex problem. But the knowledge which one gains in such enterprises is priceless. Forget about Bill Gates, George Bush, and Saddam Hussein (although they DO make a difference!). Gentlemen such as these are the real movers and shakers of the world, although few may hear of them ,for they toil as little known geniuses. We should be indebted to writers like John Casti, for telling us their story. Thank you, John!

Casti, a well-known science writer and a member of the Santa Fe Institute, has composed a charming fantasy in which five of the leading minds of the post war era meet over dinner to discuss the possibility of intelligent machines. The partipants are C.P. Snow, J.B.S. Haldane, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Alan Turing and Erwin Schroedinger, all of whose works have contributed to the debate in the years since. Casti's prose may be a bit clumsy at times, and his settings a bit forced, but he does a marvelous job of letting the characters expound their philisophical views and play them out against each other. He plays a little loose with history- for example he introduces John Searle's "Chinese Room" argument about 30 years early- but he does so in a way that follows naturally from the writings of his characters. I was basically familiar with the arguments in the book, but hadn't really read much in the area in a number of years. Casti's book was a very entertaining review for me. For someone unfamiliar with the issues it would be a great introduction.

This book is of that seductive genre of imaginary conversations between real people. In this case the conversation in question was not even unlikely, as all the participants were available in the England of 1949, and the scene and pretext for their gathering is plausible. However, such a gathering never happened (or if it did, we have not heard of it), but the author thinks it not too late to convene C.P. Snow, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Erwin Shrödinger, J.B.S. Haldane, and Alan Turing, feed them a decent meal and get their ideas on the nature of human intelligence and how it relates to the possible nature of a thinking machine.

So there they are, at Cambridge-in Darwin's old rooms, no less-on a rainy evening, enjoying a multi-course repast. For some of them, this is the best food they've had in a decade, but these are men who are sustained by ideas, so do not let the meal distract them (except perhaps for Haldane).

The question before these pre-eminent thinkers is this: how feasible is a thinking computer-can one be built? This is, in short, a multi-part meditation on Artificial Intelligence, come at from different directions. The setup allows Casti to start, essentially, from first principles, since in 1949 the computer is new, and there has been little thought and less work on its potential beyond the obvious uses for brute-force calculating.

Snow acts as moderator, trying to keep the discussion on track, and the philosopher, physicist, biologist, and mathematician argue it out, drawing on their particular expertise and being limited by the complementary prejudices. The author gives Turing and Schrodinger the best lines, and Wittgenstein the worst. Ah, well, it's probably appropriate. So we tend to sympathize with Turing and are annoyed at Wittgenstein (both men will be dead before long, but that does not intrude here). And as a result, we also tend to agree with Turing, as I am sure Casti does-and as I do, too (although, of course, the "Turing" I'm agreeing with is just a dramatic invention of John Casti).

The author also warns us that he is going deliberately to forshadow some ideas that other people actually introduced later, but give appropriate credit in the Afterword. He does this for the most part, but does not mention that the idea of kin selection (given to Turing in the conversation) is actually due to the late William Hamilton.

I found Casti's writing a bit clunky at times, and the framing device-the meal, the rainy night-sometimes seemed artificially intrusive, but I still enjoyed the book. The ideas were not new to me; I have a background in theoretical computing, though not Artificial Intelligence. Someone approaching this material fresh would be enlightened, entertained, and perhaps delighted by the discussion. A lot of sophisticated chat has gone over the dam since "1949", but the questions here raised are still fresh, and by no means resolved.

Casti has succeeded in producing a brief and highly readable introduction to the concepts of artificial intelligence. His Cambridge setting in the rooms once used by Darwin and at a time not long after the Second World War, his lifelike rendition of Haldane, Schrodinger, Snow, Turing and Wittgenstein, and the presentation of arguments over the course of a dinner make his `scientific speculation' highly readable. The play of personalities and the challenging yet potentially complementary perspectives of the diners develop towards a `feasibility study' on artificial intelligence. The discussion does not get bogged down as some expositions of artificial intelligence do.

Casti's `Afterwards' casts the fictitious dinner discussion in a more contemporary context. The book's treatment of diverse topics, ranging across adaptive algorithms, awareness, language and development, and group selection, is summary yet contained, and will enable the reader to pursue topics as he or she wishes. The field of artificial intelligence has waxed and waned since Casti wrote this speculation, yet the basic issues have changed little.

This is a speculative science writing of the best quality. This discusses the issues of machine intelligence among five seminal thinkers as they talk to each other at a Cambridge university dinner party. A primer reading on machine intelligence.