Machines, minds and computers

Computers are becoming smarter and may soon become intelligent. This free course, Machines, minds and computers, looks at what intelligence is, how computers may become so, and whether they ever will really be intelligent. It is aimed at people interested in understanding what intelligence and thinking really are, and who want to understand the underpinnings of our ideas about them.

• Introduction
• Learning outcomes
• 1 Machines
• 1 Machines
• 1.1 The tool-building animal
• 1.1.1 Why build artificial creatures?
• 1.1.2 What was being built? Or imagined?
• 1.1.3 What has been the public attitude to artificial creatures?
• 1.2 Tools and machines
• 2 Minds
• 2 Minds
• 2.1 What is mind?
• 2.2 Artificial intelligence
• 2.3 Cybernetics
• 3 AI
• 3 AI
• 3.1 Enter the digital computer
• 3.1.1 What is intelligence?
• 3.2 Cybernetics and Symbolic AI
• 3.3 Artificial intelligence – the quest
• 3.3.1 Weak artificial intelligence
• 3.3.2 Strong artificial intelligence
• 4 Computers
• 4 Computers
• 4.1 The digital computer
• 4.1.1 Formal systems
• 4.1.2 Automatic formal systems
• 4.1.3 Principle of Automation
• 4.1.4 Interpreted automatic formal systems
• 4.2 What computers can do
• 4.2.1 Models
• 4.2.2 Optimisation problems
• 4.3 What computers can't do?
• 5 Conclusion – Symbolic AI and Cybernetics
• 5 Conclusion – Symbolic AI and Cybernetics
• Keep on learning
• References
• Further reading
• Acknowledgements