
Marvin Minsky Reflects on a Life in AI [video] - adenadel
http://www.technologyreview.com/video/543031/marvin-minsky-reflects-on-a-life-in-ai/
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burnte
Back in the 80s he wrote a book called "The Society of Mind" which I think is
an amazing book. The core theory, which really resonated with me and stuck
with me, is that we do not consist of a single mind. Our consciousness is a
set of smaller subsegments (he calls them agents) that work (generally)
together.

If you think about the fact that looking at our brain you can see the
evolutionary differences compared with other organism,s this starts to make a
lot of sense. We have these different systems that have varying ages, with
natural selection putting more pressure to develop a new system or enhance an
old one, and the brain winding up almost like a tree trunk with different
rings. It makes sense these smaller chunks do their own thing then "talk" to
other parts. we even have language referencing it, "I'm of two minds about
XYZ", and diseases like schizophrenia and hallucinations we trace to various
parts of the brain not recognizing each other or not working properly
together. We have studies that seem to indicate some decisions being made
before we consciously think about them.

About a decade ago I really started to feel like I've begun to recognize
different "aspects" and understand why I feel the way I do by understanding
this theory. An example is, if I have a big decision, and I find that I'm
undecided and really unhappy while trying to come to a conclusion, it's
usually because I've actually already decided, and I'm unhappy because I'm
arguing with myself, I'm not accepting that decision. Rarely have I been
unhappy with the decision I'd already made, too.

He's a brilliant guy with some amazing work going back decades.

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radiowave
I'm not familiar with Minsky's book, but the core idea seems to have a lot in
common with the modular theory of mind [1], which was explored in a MOOC that
I found fascinating, and which is now available in a self-paced form [2].

[1] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modularity_of_mind](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modularity_of_mind)

[2] - [https://www.coursera.org/learn/science-of-
meditation](https://www.coursera.org/learn/science-of-meditation)

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auvrw
dunno know if it's necessary to go all the way back to the 60's to see
interesting approaches to cognitive science.. hofstadter's 1995 book is a good
read

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_Concepts_and_Creative_An...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_Concepts_and_Creative_Analogies)

~~~
mindcrime
I'm in the middle of reading that book right now. So far, I'd say that I
highly recommend it. I'm actually planning to do some work trying to implement
a program for the Le Compte Est Bon game.

I've also been reading _Surfaces and Essences_ , also by Hofstadter, and
recommend it as well.

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aroman
"Let's get another group of beginners in to see what they can do... and fire
the experts."

What a thing to say.

~~~
giardini
Minsky certainly knows what the experts can do: he and Seymour Papert more
than decimated research in neural networks by writing "Perceptrons".
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptrons_(book)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptrons_\(book\))

He remains critical of neuroscience:

[http://luttrellica.blogspot.com/2007/01/marvin-minsky-
bashes...](http://luttrellica.blogspot.com/2007/01/marvin-minsky-bashes-
neuroscience.html)

I've sometimes thought that AI would be solved only once Minsky passed from
the scene.

~~~
musesum
To paraphrase MM: Let's fire all the experts in NN and make room for someone
naive enough to reinvent GOFAI.

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mark_l_watson
I have heard him speak a few times, very engaging.

I have one minor disagreement with something he said about in the past they
would make some big improvement every few days, now it is every few years.

With all due respect, I think that he has it backwards. I have to some degree
been working in AI and machine learning since the 1980s. I am blown away at
how fast new good results are achieved.

