How to Build a Mind: Toward Machines with Imagination

"How to Build a Mind" by Igor Aleksander, does everything but tell you how to build a mind as its entanglements with philosophy leaves the reader questioning whether this book should indeed be categorized under neuroscience or under the philosophy of science. Succinctly stated it is a short almanac on varying temporal perspectives on the philosophical definition of the mind with nominal science thrown in every few chapters. At the onset, I was enthralled at the prospect of being able to read the writing of famous neural engineer: Igor Aleksander. As a member of the Royal academy of Engineering who revolutionized the field of neural networks, Dr. Aleksander is known throughout the world as a leader in his field. As such I approached the book with the trepidation that stems from reading the thoughts of a man whose intellect far supersedes my basal one. Considering that Dr. Aleksander has invented the first `conscious machine "MAGNUS", the title of the book lead me to believe that this would be an expose' on that phenomenal achievement (as the title does read: `How to Build a Mind'). From the onset, the author spends a majority of the book in pointless and completely imaginary banter with the philosophers of yonder lore to no effect. Considering that these conversations are completely imaginary with no basis in history, it is difficult to fathom the literary value of such text that does nothing but add to volume of the book. As I read through countless pages of painful conjecture, I clung desperately to the possibility that there might still be some part of the book that spent time explaining the complexities that are associated with generating neural nets and the science that undergirds it all. Needless to say I was deeply disappointed as the science (both biological and computational) presented did not exceed the level of an average high school student which essentially prevented any meaningful exploration into the phenomenal achievement that is the development of conscious neural nets. Over 75% of this book is fundamentally a thought experiment into philosophically examining the definition of consciousness through the eyes of all the great philosophers of yester years. The book is divided into twelve chapters which temporally progresses through either philosophy or the research career of Dr. Aleksander with chapters in which both are intertwined. To be fair to the author, Dr. Aleksander does outline his book appropriately in the first chapter with the initial disclaimer that the book was not written purely for the scientist as such an audience would be limited indeed. The second chapter is set in the Greek town of Miletus which was the home to the fathers of philosophy Anaximes, Thales and Anaximander. It is in this chapter that the author engages in a completely fictional and non historical account of a discourse between Thales and Anaximander and later between Anaximes and himself, each debating about the divinity of the soul, life itself and its relationship to objects. Following this fictional account, in the third chapter of the book the author shifts gears by covering the history of `cybernetics' from its inception in 1958 with multiple references to Norbert Weiner's pioneering work chronicled in the book "Cybernetics". Before dipping too much into reality, the author finds an incessant need to jump back into the foray of fictional discourses in the fourth chapter of the book titled "The Ghost of Aristotle". This chapter recounts Aristotle's trial in Greece with the accusations against Aristotle ranging from his influence on Alexander the Great to the charge of `impiety'. In this chapter, the author takes pot shots at religion with multiple references to theistic failures during Aristotle's time. In what is quickly becoming the classical structure of the book, the next chapter focuses purely on Dr. Aleksander's initial work in the field which started with his first research position at Queen Mary University. It is in this chapter that some semblance of neuroscience is presented with a concise summary of certain aspects of computational modeling and the biological underpinnings of neuronal function. The chapter following this adheres to the pattern that any reader will have come to expect: another fictional account. This time around, in the chapter titled "Liberating Philosophy", a whirlwind of make belief is experienced as the author interviews the likes of Rene Decartes, John Locke and David Hume about the perception and definition of consciousness and whether it can exist in an object. After this little imaginary dip into philosophy, the author then predictably returns to reality in the next chapter as he describes the first neural circuit model that he built called Minerva. The basic workings of Minerva are explained without any mechanistic details by simply stating that RAM's with three inputs and outputs were used to develop the system which had a limited ability to recognize letters represented by bulbs on a circuit board. The next chapter elopes into the realm of fiction again as the author imagines being in conversation with Dr. Wittgenstien (a strong proponent that machines cannot have consciousness) on the very notion that machines can indeed have a consciousness. From this fictional realm, the reader is bought back to reality as the author superficially touches on the development of his next neural net christened WISARD which was designed to overcome the failures of Minerva through the employment of a larger RAM backbone (256 Megabytes which at the time required a long time to even obtain from the manufacturers). WISARD as the author notes was still vulnerable to Alan Lightman's theory of combinatorial explosion. Following the lack of computational details about WISARD, in the following chapter the author provides a transcript of his discussions on the BBC show known as `Start the Week' about consciousness. This discussion was between the author and multiple scientific personalities well known in research circles, Susan Greenfield, Roger Penrose, Margaret Boden, Aaron Sloman, Francis Crick and Daniel Dennett. The chapter portrays the author as the lone star general who stood by the idea that machines could indeed be conscious. Following this proclamation by the author, the following chapter focuses on the development of MAGNUS which overcame all the challenges faced by WISARD. This machine was largely successful due to the implementation of three states, input, output and a middle state which remembered previous inputs. Such a design thus gave the machine an internal state which the author claims is representative of consciousness. The final chapter of the book examines the theoretical constructs from which consciousness is both understood and explained. These constructs the author purports is in line with the idea that machines can be conscious. In looking back at the book, the few memorable lines are the recounting of Descartes famous statement, "Cognito ergo sum" (I think therefore I am) and Betrand Russels quote about Aristotle in chapter 4 of the book which stated " After his death, it was two thousand years before the world produced any philosopher who could be regarded as approximately his equal". While the author's prose is gifted indeed this book is anything but prose and as such, the lack of computational, mechanistic and biological details combined with fictional and imaginary accounts makes this book a challenge to read. Furthermore, the author digresses on numerous occasions, often through unashamed admission with further attacks the credibility of the message being narrated. The one aspect that the author does justice to is his interest and passion in philosophy that is reflected in the numerous quotes that prelude every chapter. All in all, for anyone interested in a philosophical discussion about consciousness and its ramifications in the computational world should read this book with little expectation for any serious scientific explanation of the development of any of the neural nets that the author has received notoriety for.