Beyond Information

The second half of the twentieth century has seen the use of machine intelligence infiltrate many critical areas of technology, including defence and military planning. Intelligent knowledge-based systems have the potential to augment informed judgement and to help avoid high-technology failures such as the Chernobyl meltdown by reducing the margin for human error. However, as our understanding of the nature of information and human intelligence is extremely limited, it is now recognised that we need to develop a body of scientific knowledge about artificial intelligence to ensure that these systems are sufficiently reliable for the roles they perform. In Beyond Information Professor Tom Stonier examines the issues involved in making artificial intelligence into an engineering science and clarifies many of the accompanying problems. He also makes an important contribution to the development of a theory of information by discussing the evolution of intelligence from its most primitive to its most advanced conceivable form. Beyond Information is the second in a trilogy of books which addresses this important area: the first volume, Information and the Internal Structure of the Universe, examined the proposition that information has a physical reality, like matter and energy, while a third volume, Beyond Chaos, will outline the requirements of a theory of information in greater detail. Among the actual topics discussed in this volume are: the nature of intelligence and information; intelligence as the inevitable product of an advanced information system; the evolution of collective intelligence into animal society; the evolution of human culture and technology; a comparison between the human brain and the computer; and the future of machine intelligence with an emphasis on neural network computers. Overall Beyond Information considers the long term future of the human race in the face of the extraordinary new technology which is emerging. Although it is specifically aimed at physicists and members of the IT community, it is a book which will also be of interest to a wide general readership.