Thinking about Android Epistemology

Citation

Hutton, D.M. (2007), "Thinking about Android Epistemology", Kybernetes, Vol. 36 No. 5/6, pp. 825-826. https://doi.org/10.1108/03684920710749893

This edited text we are told, is an updated version of Android Espistemology which was published in 1995. It presents an introduction by philosophers and computer scientists to alternative systems of cognition.

The editors have been guided by the need to examine “minds” other than “human minds”. They take the opinion that we should consider these “other sorts of minds” and also develop physical systems so that they too can be structured to “produce both knowledge and competence”. Philosophy has always been very much concerned with humans and their minds. The advent of advanced technology has provided us with the opportunity to consider systems, their functions and their properties. The introduction of sophisticated computing systems enables us to study their capacity to learn, to analyse, to theorize to such an extent that they actively show their competence. The contributors to this book include many well‐known writers in the field. They endeavour to introduce these systems as “systems of cognition” which demand our study and attention. Android epistemology is looked at from not only a very necessary theoretical standpoint, but also from the practical viewpoint.

Since, 1995 when the first version was published, we have seen the advances in fields such as artificial intelligence which have despite their rather slow emergence, enabled us to study such systems.

This is a book that sets its readers thinking along new lines and should interest the “traditional philosopher” as well as readers whose main interests lie in alternative systems, which can supplement the human mind's activity. Whilst both the capacities and the limitations of the human mind has through the ages fascinated epistemologists and philosophers, the editors of this book believe that now is the time for us to earnestly consider alternative systems as well. They have given readers in this book an introduction to current thinking which is well worth their consideration.

Further information about the book can be obtained at: www.aaai.org