1st Edition
Is Mind Just a Computation? How Computer Science Dispels the Myths of the Age of AI
Chapter 1 Introduction, Part I The Veil of Convention, Chapter 2 The Alien Device, Chapter 3 The Illusion of Objectivity, Chapter 4 Secret Conventions, Chapter 5 Universal Alien Device, Chapter 6 Relativity of Information, Part II Genuine Imitations, Chapter 7 Role-playing Machines, Chapter 8 Universal Imitators, Chapter 9 Cells, Tiles, and All That, Part III The Magic of Convention, Chapter 10 The Laws of Computation, Chapter 11 A DIY Experiment, Chapter 12 Everything All at Once, Chapter 13 How Many Digital Angels Can Dance on the Point of a Needle, Chapter 14 Uncanny Triviality, Part IV Result 1: Can a Computer Have a Mind of its Own, Chapter 15 Does a Computer Think if No One is Around to See it, Part V From Bits to Qubits and Brains, Chapter 16 Beyond Binary, Chapter 17 Quantum Computers, Interlude, Part VI Result 2: Is Your Mind Just a Computation, Chapter 18 Crucial Experiment: Are You a Computation?, Part VII Physics and Being, Chapter 19 Digital dreams, Chapter 20 Relativity of Structure
Biography
Dr. Cristi Stoica researches Theoretical Physics at the Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Romania. He is interested in foundational questions about the universe, preferring whenever possible geometric and group-theoretic approaches. His research areas include General Relativity, in particular black hole and Big Bang singularities, foundations of Quantum Mechanics, and the Standard Model of particle physics. Before, he taught mathematics and most of the time developed advanced algorithms of computational geometry for the private sector. All this time, he was preoccupied by questions about the nature of consciousness and how it fits in the rigid structure of the physical laws. His essays on physics received several prizes from the Foundational Questions Institute. This book is the result of combining his passions for the applications of symmetries in physics, Computer Science, mathematics, teaching, and understanding the place of consciousness in the physical world.
