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A triumph of science reporting, The Universe
Within is a wonderfully readable, lucid, firsthand account
of the latest discoveries and theories of cognitive science
-- the study of how our minds work. Drawing on two years
of interviews with scientists at the cutting edge of this
new discipline, Morton Hunt has synthesized an astonishing
range of information covering every aspect of the mind,
from the failure of behaviorism to the future of artificial
intelligence.
Hunt portrays the work of researchers who
are at last successfully investigating such mysteries of
the mind as memory and forgetting, concept formation, logical
reasoning, inferential reasoning, and the differences between
the problem solving of experts and of novices. With him
we watch cognitive scientists performing laboratory experiments
in human response (where differences of a few thousandths
of a second are the clue to what is happening in the mind),
studying the reasoning of pre-literate peoples, and simulating
human thought on computers. He discusses the evolution and
physiology of the brain; how we store, process, and recall
over 100 trillion bits of information; and how we acquire
the ability to reason. He reports the latest discoveries
about how we solve problems and get creative ideas, and
documents the present state and future potential of computer
intelligence in relation to the human mind.
Throughout, Hunt demonstrates how our intellects
make us radically different from all other life forms. For
only we human beings have the ability to create a symbolic
universe in the mind -- to invent words, numbers, and other
symbols for objects, events, and concepts -- and, by juggling
that inner universe, to pre-test and shape our behavior
in the world outside. But, he tells us, we are also intellectually
superior in crucial ways to any existing computer and, perhaps,
to any that will ever exist.
Hunt encourages us to put the findings of
cognitive science to our own use, for as we learn how our
minds actually work, we become capable of using our mental
powers far more effectively than we now do.
The Universe Within asks us to look
beyond the old nature/nurture debate: to see that the view
of man as a "naked ape," pre-programmed like other
animals, is as inaccurate as the opposite view -- that we
are totally the product of training and experience. Hunt
invites us to discover that in fact we are infinitely more
intricate and remarkable than we have ever realized.
Morton Hunt's books include The Natural
History of Love and The World of the Formerly Married;
he has also written extensively on the behavioral sciences.
He is married to author Bernice Hunt, and lives in Bedford,
New York.
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