Marvin Minsky — one of the fathers of computer science and cofounder of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT — gives a revolutionary answer to the age-old question: "How does the mind work?"

Minsky brilliantly portrays the mind as a "society" of tiny components that are themselves mindless. Mirroring his theory, Minsky boldly casts The Society of Mind as an intellectual puzzle whose pieces are assembled along the way. Each chapter — on a self-contained page — corresponds to a piece in the puzzle. As the pages turn, a unified theory of the mind emerges, like a mosaic. Ingenious, amusing, and easy to read, The Society of Mind is an adventure in imagination.

Minsky brilliantly portrays the mind as a "society" of tiny components that are themselves mindless. Mirroring his theory, Minsky boldly casts The Society of Mind as an intellectual puzzle whose pieces are assembled along the way. Each chapter — on a self-contained page — corresponds to a piece in the puzzle. As the pages turn, a unified theory of the mind emerges, like a mosaic. Ingenious, amusing, and easy to read, The Society of Mind is an adventure in imagination.

Professor Minsky is one of the pioneers of intelligence-based robotics. He designed and built some of the first mechanical hands with tactile sensors, visual scanners, and their software and interfaces. In 1951 he built the first neural-network learning machine. With John McCarthy he founded the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in 1959. He has written seminal papers in the fields of artificial intelligence, perception, and language. His book The Society of Mind contains hundreds of ideas about the mind, many of which he has further developed in this book.

1 PROLOGUE

1.1 THE AGENTS OF THE MIND

1.2 THE MIND AND THE BRAIN

1.3 THE SOCIETY OF MIND

1.4 THE WORLD OF BLOCKS

1.5 COMMON SENSE

1.6 AGENTS AND AGENCIES

2 WHOLES AND PARTS

2.1 COMPONENTS AND CONNECTIONS

2.2 NOVELISTS AND REDUCTIONISTS

2.3 PARTS AND WHOLES

2.4 HOLES AND PARTS

2.5 EASY THINGS ARE HARD

2.6 ARE PEOPLE MACHINES?

3 CONFLICT AND COMPROMISE

3.1 CONFLICT

3.2 NONCOMPROMISE

3.3 HIERARCHIES

3.4 HETERARCHIES

3.5 DESTRUCTIVENESS

3.6 PAIN AND PLEASURE SIMPLIFIED

4 THE SELF

4.1 THE SELF

4.2 ONE SELF OR MANY?

4.3 THE SOUL

4.4 THE CONSERVATIVE SELF

4.5 EXPLOITATION

4.6 SELF-CONTROL

4.7 LONG-RANGE PLANS

4.8 IDEALS

5 INDIVIDUALITY

5.1 CIRCULAR CAUSALITY

5.2 UNANSWERABLE QUESTIONS

5.3 THE REMOTE-CONTROL SELF

5.4 PERSONAL IDENTITY

5.5 FASHION AND STYLE

5.6 TRAITS

5.7 PERMANENT IDENTITY

6 INSIGHT AND INTROSPECTION

6.1 CONSCIOUSNESS

6.2 SIGNALS AND SIGNS

6.3 THOUGHT-EXPERIMENTS

6.4 B-BRAINS

6.5 FROZEN REFLECTION

6.6 MOMENTARY MENTAL TIME

6.7 THE CAUSAL NOW

6.8 THINKING WITHOUT THINKING

6.9 HEADS IN THE CLOUDS

6.10 WORLDS OUT OF MIND

6.11 IN-SIGHT

6.12 INTERNAL COMMUNICATION

6.13 SELF-KNOWLEDGE IS DANGEROUS

6.14 CONFUSION

7 PROBLEMS AND GOALS

7.1 INTELLIGENCE

7.2 UNCOMMON SENSE

7.3 THE PUZZLE PRINCIPLE

7.4 PROBLEM SOLVING

7.5 LEARNING AND MEMORY

7.6 REINFORCEMENT AND REWARD

7.7 LOCAL RESPONSIBILITY

7.8 DIFFERENCE-ENGINES

7.9 INTENTIONS

7.10 GENIUS

8 A THEORY OF MEMORY

8.1 K-LINES: A THEORY OF MEMORY

8.2 RE-MEMBERING

8.3 MENTAL STATES AND DISPOSITIONS

8.4 PARTIAL MENTAL STATES

8.5 LEVEL-BANDS

8.6 LEVELS

8.7 FRINGES

8.8 SOCIETIES OF MEMORIES

8.9 KNOWLEDGE-TREES

8.10 LEVELS AND CLASSIFICATIONS

8.11 LAYERS OF SOCIETIES

9 SUMMARIES

9.1 WANTING AND LIKING

9.2 GERRYMANDERING

9.3 LEARNING FROM FAILURE

9.4 ENJOYING DISCOMFORT

10 PAPERT'S PRINCIPLE

10.1 PIAGET'S EXPERIMENTS

10.2 REASONING ABOUT AMOUNTS

10.3 PRIORITIES

10.4 PAPERT'S PRINCIPLE

10.5 THE SOCIETY-OF-MORE

10.6 ABOUT PIAGET'S EXPERIMENTS

10.7 THE CONCEPT OF CONCEPT

10.8 EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT

10.9 LEARNING A HIERARCHY

11 THE SHAPE OF SPACE

11.1 SEEING RED

11.2 THE SHAPE OF SPACE

11.3 NEARNESSES

11.4 INNATE GEOGRAPHY

11.5 SENSING SIMILARITIES

11.6 THE CENTERED SELF

11.7 PREDESTINED LEARNING

11.8 HALF-BRAINS

11.9 DUMBBELL THEORIES

12 LEARNING MEANING

12.1 A BLOCK-ARCH SCENARIO

12.2 LEARNING MEANING

12.3 UNIFRAMES

12.4 STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION

12.5 THE FUNCTIONS OF STRUCTURES

12.6 ACCUMULATION

12.7 ACCUMULATION STRATEGIES

12.8 PROBLEMS OF DISUNITY

12.9 THE EXCEPTION PRINCIPLE

12.10 HOW TOWERS WORK

12.11 HOW CAUSES WORK

12.12 MEANING AND DEFINITION

12.13 BRIDGE-DEFINITIONS

13 SEEING AND BELIEVING

13.1 REFORMULATION

13.2 BOUNDARIES

13.3 SEEING AND BELIEVING

13.4 CHILDREN'S DRAWING-FRAMES

13.5 LEARNING A SCRIPT

13.6 THE FRONTIER EFFECT

13.7 DUPLICATIONS

14 REFORMULATION

14.1 USING REFORMULATIONS

14.2 THE BODY-SUPPORT CONCEPT

14.3 MEANS AND ENDS

14.4 SEEING SQUARES

14.5 BRAINSTORMING

14.6 THE INVESTMENT PRINCIPLE

14.7 PARTS AND HOLES

14.8 THE POWER OF NEGATIVE THINKING

14.9 THE INTERACTION-SQUARE

15 CONSCIOUSNESS AND MEMORY

15.1 MOMENTARY MENTAL STATE

15.2 SELF-EXAMINATION

15.3 MEMORY

15.4 MEMORIES OF MEMORIES

15.5 THE IMMANENCE ILLUSION

15.6 MANY KINDS OF MEMORY

15.7 MEMORY REARRANGEMENTS

15.8 ANATOMY OF MEMORY

15.9 INTERRUPTION AND RECOVERY

15.10 LOSING TRACK

15.11 THE RECURSION PRINCIPLE

16 EMOTION

16.1 EMOTION

16.2 MENTAL GROWTH

16.3 MENTAL PROTO-SPECIALISTS

16.4 CROSS-EXCLUSION

16.5 AVALANCHE EFFECTS

16.6 MOTIVATION

16.7 EXPLOITATION

16.8 STIMULUS VS. SIMULUS

16.9 INFANT EMOTIONS

16.10 ADULT EMOTIONS

17 DEVELOPMENT

17.1 SEQUENCES OF TEACHING-SELVES

17.2 ATTACHMENT-LEARNING

17.3 ATTACHMENT SIMPLIFIES

17.4 FUNCTIONAL AUTONOMY

17.5 DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES

17.6 PREREQUISITES FOR GROWTH

17.7 GENETIC TIMETABLES

17.8 ATTACHMENT-IMAGES

17.9 DIFFERENT SPANS OF MEMORIES

17.10 INTELLECTUAL TRAUMA

17.11 INTELLECTUAL IDEALS

18 REASONING

18.1 MUST MACHINES BE LOGICAL?

18.2 CHAINS OF REASONING

18.3 CHAINING

18.4 LOGICAL CHAINS

18.5 STRONG ARGUMENTS

18.6 MAGNITUDE FROM MULTITUDE

18.7 WHAT IS A NUMBER?

18.8 MATHEMATICS MADE HARD

18.9 ROBUSTNESS AND RECOVERY

19 WORDS AND IDEAS

19.1 THE ROOTS OF INTENTION

19.2 THE LANGUAGE-AGENCY

19.3 WORDS AND IDEAS

19.4 OBJECTS AND PROPERTIES

19.5 POLYNEMES

19.6 RECOGNIZERS

19.7 WEIGHING EVIDENCE

19.8 GENERALIZING

19.9 RECOGNIZING THOUGHTS

19.10 CLOSING THE RING

20 CONTEXT AND AMBIGUITY

20.1 AMBIGUITY

20.2 NEGOTIATING AMBIGUITY

20.3 VISUAL AMBIGUITY

20.4 LOCKING-IN AND WEEDING-OUT

20.5 MICRONEMES

20.6 THE NEMEIC SPIRAL

20.7 CONNECTIONS

20.8 CONNECTION LINES

20.9 DISTRIBUTED MEMORY

21 TRANS-FRAMES

21.1 THE PRONOUNS OF THE MIND

21.2 PRONOMES

21.3 TRANS-FRAMES

21.4 COMMUNICATION AMONG AGENTS

21.5 AUTOMATISM

21.6 TRANS-FRAME PRONOMES

21.7 GENERALIZING WITH PRONOMES

21.8 ATTENTION

22 EXPRESSION

22.1 PRONOMES AND POLYNEMES

22.2 ISONOMES

22.3 DE-SPECIALIZING

22.4 LEARNING AND TEACHING

22.5 INFERENCE

22.6 EXPRESSION

22.7 CAUSES AND CLAUSES

22.8 INTERRUPTIONS

22.9 PRONOUNS AND REFERENCES

22.10 VERBAL EXPRESSION

22.11 CREATIVE EXPRESSION

23 COMPARISONS

23.1 A WORLD OF DIFFERENCES

23.2 DIFFERENCES AND DUPLICATES

23.3 TIME BLINKING

23.4 THE MEANINGS OF MORE

23.5 FOREIGN ACCENTS

24 FRAMES

24.1 THE SPEED OF THOUGHT

24.2 FRAMES OF MIND

24.3 HOW TRANS-FRAMES WORK

24.4 DEFAULT ASSUMPTIONS

24.5 NONVERBAL REASONING

24.6 DIRECTION-NEMES

24.7 PICTURE-FRAMES

24.8 HOW PICTURE-FRAMES WORK

24.9 RECOGNIZERS AND MEMORIZERS

25 FRAME-ARRAYS

25.1 ONE FRAME AT A TIME?

25.2 FRAME-ARRAYS

25.3 THE STATIONARY WORLD

25.4 THE SENSE OF CONTINUITY

25.5 EXPECTATIONS

25.6 THE FRAME IDEA

26 LANGUAGE-FRAMES

26.1 UNDERSTANDING WORDS

26.2 UNDERSTANDING STORIES

26.3 SENTENCE-FRAMES

26.4 A PARTY-FRAME

26.5 STORY-FRAMES

26.6 SENTENCE AND NONSENSE

26.7 FRAMES FOR NOUNS

26.8 FRAMES FOR VERBS

26.9 LANGUAGE AND VISION

26.10 LEARNING LANGUAGE

26.11 GRAMMAR

26.12 COHERENT DISCOURSE

27 CENSORS AND JOKES

27.1 DEMONS

27.2 SUPPRESSORS

27.3 CENSORS

27.4 EXCEPTIONS TO LOGIC

27.5 JOKES

27.6 HUMOR AND CENSORSHIP

27.7 LAUGHTER

27.8 GOOD HUMOR

28 THE MIND AND THE WORLD

28.1 THE MYTH OF MENTAL ENERGY

28.2 MAGNITUDE AND MARKETPLACE

28.3 QUANTITY AND QUALITY

28.4 MIND OVER MATTER

28.5 THE MIND AND THE WORLD

28.6 MINDS AND MACHINES

28.7 INDIVIDUAL IDENTITIES

28.8 OVERLAPPING MINDS

29 THE REALMS OF THOUGHT

29.1 THE REALMS OF THOUGHT

29.2 SEVERAL THOUGHTS AT ONCE

29.3 PARANOMES

29.4 CROSS-REALM CORRESPONDENCES

29.5 THE PROBLEM OF UNITY

29.6 AUTISTIC CHILDREN

29.7 LIKENESSES AND ANALOGIES

29.8 METAPHORS

30 MENTAL MODELS

30.1 KNOWING

30.2 KNOWING AND BELIEVING

30.3 MENTAL MODELS

30.4 WORLD MODELS

30.5 KNOWING OURSELVES

30.6 FREEDOM OF WILL

30.7 THE MYTH OF THE THIRD ALTERNATIVE

30.8 INTELLIGENCE AND RESOURCEFULNESS

APPENDIX

31.1 HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT

31.2 THE GENESIS OF MENTAL REALMS

31.3 GESTURES AND TRAJECTORIES

31.4 BRAIN CONNECTIONS

31.5 SURVIVAL INSTINCT

31.6 EVOLUTION AND INTENT

31.7 INSULATION AND INTERACTION

31.8 EVOLUTION OF HUMAN THOUGHT

POSTSCRIPT AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT

GLOSSARY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX