The Laws of Thought: The Quest for a Mathematical Theory of the Mind

人類發展出物理、化學等學科，藉由力、重力加速度等「自然法則」來解釋世界的運行，然而對於自身內在世界的「思考法則」，我們長期以來卻普遍缺乏相同程度的理解。數學被用於解開宇宙奧秘的過程廣為人知，然而，它又是如何被應用來解構人類心智？本書探索人類試圖以數學揭開「思考法則」秘密的漫長追尋，從三百年前的起源談起，一路延伸至今日人工智慧的發展，以及這些系統至今仍與人類心智存在的關鍵差異。

本書作者湯姆．葛瑞菲斯（Tom Griffiths）是認知科學領域的權威學者，也是大數據暢銷經典《決斷的演算》（Algorithms to Live By）的共同作者，他領導普林斯頓大學「計算認知科學實驗室」，致力於把人類的思維模式轉化為有邏輯的數學模型。在這部新作中，葛瑞菲斯深入淺出地解說解構思維的三大路徑：規則與符號（rules and symbols）、類神經網路（neural networks），以及機率與統計（probability and statistics），不僅釐清了人類思維與演算法之間的關鍵差異，更進一步預言了科技的未來走向。(文/博客來編譯)

各界讚譽：

「作者提供了一場引人入勝的旅程，帶領讀者穿梭於形塑人類對心智認知的各種框架之間……對所有好奇人類是如何思考、機器怎麼模仿並與我們抗衡的人來說，這都是一本必讀之作。」——《為什麼我們這樣對話、那樣生活》（Supercommunicators）作者查爾斯．杜希格（Charles Duhigg）

「在這個熱衷於『會思考的機器』的年代，作者邀請我們深思『思考』究竟是什麼？我們又該如何以科學方式理解它？這位全球頂尖的認知科學家，以深入淺出的方式，為我們爬梳追尋認知法則的歷史，既豐富又有趣。當人類極力將智慧形式化、機械化，我們對自己心智的理解程度，也隨之躍進。這是一本重要且切合時宜的傑作，每個正在思考的人類都應該閱讀。」——AI領域知名學者梅拉妮．米歇爾（Melanie Mitchell）

From the coauthor of Algorithms to Live By, an exploration of the quest to use mathematics to describe the ways we think, from its origins three hundred years ago to the ideas behind modern AI systems and the ways in which they still differ from human minds

Everyone has a basic understanding of how the physical world works. We learn about physics and chemistry in school, letting us explain the world around us in terms of concepts like force, acceleration, and gravity--the Laws of Nature. But we don’t have the same fluency with concepts needed to understand the world inside us--the Laws of Thought. While the story of how mathematics has been used to reveal the mysteries of the universe is familiar, the story of how it has been used to study the mind is not.

There is no one better to tell that story than Tom Griffiths, the head of Princeton’s AI Lab and a renowned expert in the field of cognitive science. In this groundbreaking book, he explains the three major approaches to formalizing thought--rules and symbols, neural networks, and probability and statistics--introducing each idea through the stories of the people behind it. As informed conversations about thought, language, and learning become ever more pressing in the age of AI, The Laws of Thought is an essential read for anyone interested in the future of technology.

Tom Griffiths is the Henry R. Luce Professor of Information Technology, Consciousness and Culture in the Departments of Psychology and Computer Science at Princeton University. He also directs Princeton’s Computational Cognitive Science Lab, a research group focused on understanding the mathematical foundations of human cognition, and the Princeton Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence, a new effort that supports innovative research efforts in AI and related fields. Griffiths is coauthor of the book Algorithms to Live By and has published over 400 academic papers in venues that include Science, Nature, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.