Can the habits of thought we've developed over centuries and the computers we've built to automate our thought processes help us in a world choking on data? In this sweeping examination of the history of scientific thought, James Bailey argues that our current approach to computing is crippled by our need to create computers in our own intellectual image. The solution, a parallel approach to computation, where the nature of electronic circuits rather than human nature determines the design, will produce self-modifying machines that are profoundly alien, yet have the power to extract meaning from the flow of data that surrounds us.
The author's interpretation of the history of Western science from Greek antiquity to the present is a highly personal and fits his theory almost too smoothly. But his central thesis, that our understanding of reality is strait-jacketed by the tools we've developed to describe it, is profound and well worth pondering. The book is filled with interesting historical examples based on the author's wide reading and many of his observations are pithy and thought provoking. After Thought requires a dose of corrective skepticism on the reader's part (after all, the author was an executive at Thinking Machines Corp., a manufacturer of parallel processing supercomputers), but given that caveat, it's a fascinating read.
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From Publishers Weekly
The true electronic revolution has not yet happened, proclaims Bailey. A new breed of computers is emerging, using parallel processing and new mathematics ("intermaths") with exotic names like cellular automata, genetic algorithms and artificial life, which enable computers to continually change their own programs as they compute. Instead of the traditional mathematical vocabulary of numbers, symbols and equations, these computers emphasize emergent patterns, enabling scientists to investigate a world of perpetual novelty. The new computers are being used to analyze the behavior of bird flocks and consumers, to study the human immune system, to make financial decisions and to contour the molecular structure of effective drugs. Freelancer Bailey, a former executive at Thinking Machines Corp., predicts that the new computers will create their own versions of scientific theories and help us fathom biological and cultural evolution as well as the workings of the mind. This is a thoughtful, exciting preview of the dawning age of computing.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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