"Artificial Intelligence: The Very Idea" by John Haugeland

I'm not a philosopher, but I'd like to think of myself as a deep thinker when it comes to the topics I love like robotics, computing and artificial intelligence. I've wanted to read more literature about these topics in my free time, so I started by going through my backlog of books I picked up from half-price books. One of them was a used copy of John Haugeland's "Artificial Intelligence: The Very Idea". As I may have hinted, this is a far more philosophic book that I'm used to reading, but I highly recommend it whether you're a student of computer science or of philosophy. While I was familiar with many of the computer science topics (like Turing's work and computer architecture), many of the philosophic approaches to AI problems were really refreshing and exciting. Some would complain that the book is a little dated (published in 85), but I would argue that the concepts are just as relevant today. To dismiss the idea that AI could afford to more closely resemble some of the finer parts of the human consciousness would be very short-sighted, so even if the idea seems silly the book is far too informative to dismiss without at least hearing how AI could stand to benefit from some of these features, and what they mean to our understanding of intelligence. On that topic, the book is equally interesting as an exploration of what makes human intelligence. You'll leave with an appreciation for a lot the innate "talents" the human brain can accomplish, and wondering if they can translated as automatic formal systems. 5/5