The Cambridge Quintet : A Work of Scientific Speculation

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Reviews
Amazon.com
It was a dark and stormy night. Four great minds, at the behest of a fifth, convened at Cambridge in 1949 to discuss artificial intelligence over a five-course dinner. Had geneticist J.B.S. Haldane, physicist Erwin Schrödinger, mathematician Alan Turing, and philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein actually met that night in the rooms of Britain's science adviser C.P. Snow, they may have enacted the drama revealed in The Cambridge Quintet. This work of "scientific fiction" presents what could have been the dawn of the still-raging debate over the nature of intelligence and its reproduction in "metal, glass, and plastic."

John L. Casti's characterizations allow the reader to savor the meal and pleasantries as well as the often-heated arguments. His impatient, arrogant Wittgenstein betrays a frenzied frustration with the subject, sporadically attacking the very notion of artificial intelligence as impossible. Turing, quieter and yet more forceful, explains his then-new ideas with the certainty of a prophet waiting for the world to catch up with him. Haldane, Schrödinger, and Snow play the two off one another while bringing their own considerable intellects to the subject for the first time. Discussion ranges from the nature of thought to the role of language in the brain with arguments that are sophisticated but informal. Casti takes some anachronistic liberties, but these serve to remind us that, had they not both died in 1951, Wittgenstein and Turingt would have made contributions that would have greatly enriched artificial intelligence theory. As the men finish their dinner, they have reached no conclusion or agreement. Like a fine meal, the satisfaction found in this book comes from its consumption, not its digestion. --Rob Lightner

Book Description
In this narrative tour de force, five of the greatest minds of the twentieth century argue whether machines will ever have the ability to think like humans-and whether they should be allowed to do so. --This text refers to the paperback edition of of this title

About the Author
John L. Casti is a member of the faculty of both the Santa Fe Institute and the Technical University of Vienna. He has written many acclaimed popular science books, most recently Five Golden Rules and Would-Be Worlds. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. --This text refers to the paperback edition of of this title

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