Manuel DeLanda: The New Materialism and the Mind Sci Arc February 6, 2008

http://www.sciarc.edu/lectures.php?id=1159

SCI-ARC LECTURE
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02.06.08 | W.M. Keck Lecture Hall @ 7pm
Manuel DeLanda: The New Materialism and the Mind

Philosopher + Professor, University of Pennsylvania; New York

Manuel DeLanda is the author of four philosophy books, War in the Age of Intelligent Machines, A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History, Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy and A New Philosophy of Society, as well as of many philosophical essays published in various journals and collections. He teaches two seminars at the University of Pennsylvania, Department of Architecture: “Philosophy of History: Theories of Self-Organization and Urban Dynamics” and “Philosophy of Science: Thinking about Structures and Materials”.

Artificial intelligence has evolved following two directions: a symbolic approach, in which intelligence is viewed as manipulating representations through explicit rules, and a connectionist approach in which pattern recognition and completion are the key. This lecture will examine both schools and argue that connectionist neural nets are a better approach to modeling embodied skills, the type of intelligence needed to interact with the material world.