Society of Mind

The Society of Mind (literally: The society of mind, German Title: Mentopolis ) is the title of a book and a theory of Marvin Minsky.

Minsky developed in a step - by-step process, a comprehensive model of human intelligence, and tried to transfer it to the artificial intelligence field. His central thesis is that dumb ( mindless ), simple building blocks, agents can build complexity through interactions. He describes how various interactions that are associated with a specific problem solving, as "agents Communities " can be understood, hence the title " Society of Mind".

The book ( first edition 1986), is the first comprehensive description of Minsky's Society of Mind theory, which he already started to develop in the early 1970s. The book consists of 270 separate essays, which are divided into 30 chapters.

As he explains his Society of Mind theory, Minsky introduces a number of ideas and concepts. Minsky developed theories about how processes such as language, memories, learning could work, but also deals with issues such as consciousness, free will, self-knowledge. Therefore, it is often considered more of a philosophical than an information technology book.

A core thesis Minsky is that intelligence is what brains do ( " minds are what brains do" ). The Society of Mind theory considers the human psyche and any other naturally occurring cognitive system as a large number ( society ) of individual simple processes that Minsky called "agents".

The theory is summarized by the following quote Minsky:

"What magic trick makes us smart? The trick is thatthere is no trick. The power of intelligence stems from our vast diversity, not from any single, perfect principle. "

"What magic trick makes us smart? The trick is that there is no trick. The power of intelligence stems from our vast diversity, not from a single great principle. "