Customer Reviews

Philosophy and Computing: An Introduction

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

New Scientist, 9 October 1999, p. 59 "Must read... An impressive introductory text. Floridi bravely categorises artificial intelligence, and deals with cyborgs and robots". Kevin Warwick, Professor of Cybernetics, University of Reading, UK

Best book in the area I have read for some time. The AI chapter is controversial but definitely worth reading. As for the rest, I enjoyed enormously. Don't miss it.

Floridi's book is a technical tour de force that seeks to explore some of the philosophical implications of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in the context of a rigorous and detailed examination of areas of technology such as the digital revolution, databases and hypertext, the internet and artificial intelligence. The strength of the book is his grasp of the technology. Over and over again he demonstrates a remarkable technical proficiency as he discusses areas as diverse as computer architecture, database design, network protocols and many others.

From "Ends and Means", The Journal of the University of Aberdeen Centre for Philosophy Technology and Society.

Philosophy and Computing: An Introduction is Luciano Floridi's wide-ranging account of the philosophical aspects of computers, the Internet, and digitisation in general. It is philosophy in quite a broad sense of the term, including both some relatively technical (for an introduction) sections on elementary computation theory, and many observations of a more sociological nature, examining how computer use is changing our ways of thinking and working.