Computation: Finite and Infinite Machines by Marvin Lee Minsky (PDF)

Description

Man has within a single generation found himself sharing the world with a strange new species: the computers and computer-like machines. Neither history, nor philosophy, nor common sense will tell us how these machines will affect us, for they do not do “work” as did machines of the Industrial Revolution. Instead of dealing with materials or energy, we are told that they handle “control” and “information” and even “intellectual processes.” There are very few individuals today who doubt that the computer and its relatives are developing rapidly in capability and complexity, and that these machines are destined to play important (though not as yet fully understood) roles in society’s future. Though only some of us deal directly with computers, all of us are falling under the shadow of their ever-growing sphere of influence, and thus we all need to understand their capabilities and their limitations. It would indeed be reassuring to have a book that categorically and systematically described what all these machines can do and what they cannot do, giving sound theoretical or practical grounds for each judgment. However, although some books have purported to do this, it cannot be done for the following reasons: a) Computer-like devices are utterly unlike anything which science has ever considered—we still lack the tools necessary to fully analyze, synthesize, or even think about them; and b) The methods discovered so far are effective in certain areas, but are developing much too rapidly to allow a useful interpretation and interpolation of results. The abstract theory—as described in this book—tells us in no uncertain terms that the machines’ potential range is enormous, and that its theoretical limitations are of the subtlest and most elusive sort. There is no reason to suppose machines have any limitations not shared by man.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This is one of my favorite books — I buy copies when I can to give as gifts. The subject matter — automata theory — will not be on most people’s lists as “fun things to think about” — and it certainly wasn’t on mine until I got the book about a year after it was published because I had heard a talk by the author Marvin Minsky and was very impressed by his ideas. The book was not about his talk, but about work he and others had done stretching back into the 30s on “what can machines do?”, and especially “what can machines that can model machines do?”. Interestingly, another way to ask these questions is “what can languages do?” and “what can languages that can model languages do?”.Minsky once said “You don’t understand something if you only understand it one way”, and his approach here is to look at the fundamental ideas of “representing” and “manipulating” from many perspectives. The book itself is a work of art about art, and very clearly written. It does use mathematical thinking as a vehicle, but it doesn’t require the reader to bring specific mathematical knowledge — Minsky teaches what is needed — the reader will be following mathematical reasoning, most of which will be pretty clear via Minsky’s uncluttered and often humorous style.

⭐What a fantastic book. Recommended by Alan Kay as a ‘must read’ book and I agree completely. Just brilliant!

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