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Cover of Shadows of the Mind by Roger Penrose

Shadows of the Mind

  • 480 pages · about 8 hours
  • First published 1994
  • 8 editions

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1 About this book

When it appeared in 1989, Roger Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind was universally hailed as a marvelous survey of modern physics as well as a brilliant reflection on the human mind, offering a new perspective on the scientific landscape and a visionary glimpse of the possible future of science.

Now, in Shadows of the Mind, Penrose offers another exhilarating look at modern science as he mounts an even more powerful attack on artificial intelligence. But perhaps more important, in this volume he points the way to a new science, one that may eventually explain the physical basis of the human mind.

Penrose contends that some aspects of the human mind lie beyond computation. This is not a religious argument (that the mind is something other than physical) nor is it based on the brain's vast complexity (the weather is immensely complex, says Penrose, but it is still a computable thing, at least in theory).

Good for readers who want: physics, philosophy, artificial intelligence, and a long read.

  • Physics
  • Philosophy
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Conscience
  • Sciences cognitives
  • Science, popular works
  • Physics, philosophy
  • Cognitive Science

2 About Roger Penrose

Born 1931

Sir Roger Penrose (born 8 August 1931) is an English mathematician, mathematical physicist, and philosopher of science. He is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, an emeritus fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, and an honorary fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, and University College London.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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