The sciences of the artificial

by Herbert A. Simon

Paper Book, 1996

Status

Available

Call number

300.1/1

Publication

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c1996.

Description

Continuing his exploration of the organization of complexity and the science of design, this new edition of Herbert Simon's classic work on artificial intelligence adds a chapter that sorts out the current themes and tools--chaos, adaptive systems, genetic algorithms--for analyzing complexity and complex systems. There are updates throughout the book as well. These take into account important advances in cognitive psychology and the science of design while confirming and extending the book's basic thesis: that a physical symbol system has the necessary and sufficient means for intelligent action. The chapter "Economic Reality" has also been revised to reflect a change in emphasis in Simon's thinking about the respective roles of organizations and markets in economic systems.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member lorin
. This is another one of those books that gets referenced so often that I added it to my list. I have seen references to this work in the context of design, artificial intelligence, and economics. I confess that I don't see what is so impressive about it. Perhaps the ideas it introduces were
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revolutionary in its time but now have become so accepted that it seems obvious? One concrete contribution is the idea of "satisficing", meeting the constraints of a problem without finding the optimal solution.
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LibraryThing member drunkenfilosofer
Good writing, the philosophy is a little outdated in the early 2000's. Gets a little rambling past the first third of the book.
LibraryThing member Lyndatrue
There are so many concepts in the multiple fields that owe a debt that this work that first appeared here, that it almost seems strange to revisit it. I actually wore my first copy out. The second addition was amended, and added to. Had I realized how different the new edition was, I'd have kept
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the original.
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Language

Physical description

xiv, 231 p.; 23 cm

ISBN

9780262691918
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