Mind over machine Summary

Mind over machine

Hubert L. Dreyfus

Since the advent of computers, individuals have been interested in training systems to achieve performance on par with or exceeding the capabilities of humans. With advances in technology, artificial intelligence has become an increasingly important topic in discussions surrounding machines and their capabilities, but this is not only a recent concern. In 1986, with artificial intelligence at the start of its development, brothers Hubert L. and Stuart E. Dreyfus discussed anxieties surrounding AI and its capabilities.

In Mind Over Machine: The Power of Human Intuition and Expertise in the Era of the Computer, the Dreyfus brothers utilize their respective backgrounds in philosophy and mathematics to explore the development of computers and artificial intelligence. The authors are interested in the shortcomings of artificial intelligence as it stood in the mid-1980s, and how it failed to capture the unique and subtle ways in which humans approach logic and decision making.