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So we have free will or just imagine that we do? Do we create
our own destinies or are we merely machines? Can we create a brain bigger than
our own? To answer these and many other provocative questions, psychiatrist, researcher,
and critically acclaimed author Jeffrey Satinover turns to the cutting edge of
science and sees a future for and truth about ourselves that are both shocking
and profound. First, Satinover takes us through the fascinating
history of neural nets and learning machines, a history driven by battles between
some of our country's greatest minds -- from the flamboyant, sometimes vilified
Frank Rosenblatt to the formidable, fearless Marvin Minsky. Satinover also explains
how we are applying this radical computing to neuroscience in order to create
artificial brains. These not only seem to mimic ours but may even surpass them.
Then, in language no less graceful for the heft of his subject,
Satinover reveals the third axis of his stunning argument: Quantum physics, the
most successful theory in the history of science, allows the brain to embody and
amplify the mysterious, absolute freedom that underlies all the physical world.
A a result, Satinover argues persuasively, we are elevated above
the mere learning machines modern science assumes us to be. Satinover also makes
two predictions: We will soon construct artificial devices as free and aware as
we are; and we will likewise soon begin a startling re-evaluation of just who
and what we are, of our place in the universe, and, perhaps, even of God.
The world of the quantum brain, long imagined, is finally coming,
and Jeffrey Satinover has given us an astonishing preview. Jeffrey
Satinover is a practicing psychiatrist, past president of the C. G. Jung Foundation,
and a former Fellow in Psychiatry and Child Psychiatry at Yale University. He
has been a William James Lecturer in Psychology and Religion at Harvard University.
He is currently a special student at Yale. His other books include Cracking
the Bible Code. |
