The Myth of Artificial Intelligence_ Why Computers Can’t Think the Way We Do_Erik J. Larson.pdf

THE MYTH OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE the MYTH of ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ••• Why Computers ­Can’t Think the Way We Do ••• ERIK J. LARSON The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press Cambridge, Mas­sa­chu­setts • London, ­E 2021  C All rights reserved Printed in the United States of Amer­i­ca First printing Jacket design by Henry Sene Yee Jacket art courtesy of Shutterstock 9780674259928 (EPUB) 9780674259935 (PDF) The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows: Names: Larson, Erik J. (Erik John), author. Title: The myth of artificial intelligence : why computers can't think the way we do / Erik J. Larson. Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2020050249 | ISBN 9780674983519 (cloth) Subjects: LCSH: Artificial intelligence. | Intellect. | Inference. | Logic. | Natural language processing (Computer science) | Neurosciences. Classification: LCC Q 335 .L37 2021 | DDC 006.3—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020050249 To Brooke and Ben CONTENTS I 1 Part I: THE SIMPLIFIED WORLD 7 1 The I 9 2 T 19 3 The S 33 4 The S 44 5 N­r 50 6 A 60 7 S 68 Part II: THE PROB­LEM OF INFERENCE 87 8 ­D 89 9 The P 95 1 P­le 106 viii Contents 1 M 133 1 A 157 1 I 191 14 I 204 Part III: THE ­FU 235 1 M 237 1 A­thol­ogy Invades Neuroscience 245 1 N­Human Intelligence 263 1 The E 269 notes 283 acknowl­edgments 301 index 303 INTRODUCTION In the pages of this book you ­will read about the myth of artificial in- telligence. The myth is not that true AI is pos­si­ble. As to that, the future of AI is a scientific unknown. The myth of artificial intelligence is that its arrival is inevitable, and only a ­matter of time—­that we have already embarked on the path that ­will lead to human-­level AI, and then superintelligence. We have not. The path exists only in our imaginations. Yet