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Are We Unique? (عالم المعرفة #323)

3.97 of 5 stars 3.97 · rating details · 33 ratings · 8 reviews

Acclaim for Are We Unique?
"In his masterful book, Trefil shares with readers some of the most recent research in neurology, evolution, primate research, computer science, and philosophy. Trefil's prose is lively and engaging." --Boston Globe
"Trefil's race through the science that could explain the brain is highly readable." --Sunday Times of London
"In a provocative essa...more

Hardcover, 255 pages

Published February 19th 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (first published February 1997)

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Feb 21, 2013 Mohamed Hassan Ali rated it 4 of 5 stars

الكتاب شيق و رحلة ممتعة حيث يناقش الكاتب فيها الكثير من الظواهر العلمية في اطار فلسفي للإجابة عن السؤال الذي هو عنوان الكتاب : هل نحن بلا نظير ؟

و للإجابة عن هذا السؤال شقين قام الكاتب باستكشافهما : شق يتعلق بتميز الإنسان عن الحيوان و شق آخر يتعلق بتميز الإنسان عن أجهزة الحاسب المتميزة.. و التميز في الحالتين متعلق بتفرد الدماغ عن وجود مثيل له في عالم الحيوان و الآلة.. و النقاش كان في شكل فلسفي شيق

و في استكشافه للحد الحيواني-الإنساني يتعرض الكاتب للعديد من الظواهر البيولوجية ، فمثلا يناقش الذكاء ف...more الكتاب شيق و رحلة ممتعة حيث يناقش الكاتب فيها الكثير من الظواهر العلمية في اطار فلسفي للإجابة عن السؤال الذي هو عنوان الكتاب : هل نحن بلا نظير ؟

و للإجابة عن هذا السؤال شقين قام الكاتب باستكشافهما : شق يتعلق بتميز الإنسان عن الحيوان و شق آخر يتعلق بتميز الإنسان عن أجهزة الحاسب المتميزة.. و التميز في الحالتين متعلق بتفرد الدماغ عن وجود مثيل له في عالم الحيوان و الآلة.. و النقاش كان في شكل فلسفي شيق

و في استكشافه للحد الحيواني-الإنساني يتعرض الكاتب للعديد من الظواهر البيولوجية ، فمثلا يناقش الذكاء في شقائق البحر و في الأخطبوط و غيرهما مقارنة بالذكاء في الإنسان في محاولة لوضع الحدود التي لا تتجاوزها الحيوانات في القدرات الدماغية لكي يحدد ملامح تفرد الإنسان الدماغي

و في استكشافه لحد الأنسان- الآلة يعرض الكاتب الكثير من الجدلات الفلسفية العميقة و التي لم أفهم بعضها على وجهه لكي يستقرأ امكانية من عدم اماكنية صنع آلة (حاسوب) له مثل قدرات الإنسان العقلية.. و الإستكشاف عبارة عن نقاش فلسفي و فيه يعرض الكاتب الكثير من أمور الفيزياء و الرياضات و الفلسفة و غيرهم لكي يستشف من مناقشتهم مبلغ غاية ذكاء الآلة

من يستهويه أمر الدماغ وأمور كالمعرفة و الإدراك و الذكاء سيجد في الكتاب اشباع عملي فلسفي عن هذه الموضوعات.. و أيضا ينصح بقراءة الكتاب أي شخص فربما يجد الكتاب ممتعا و مفيدا (less)

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May 16, 2010 Dennis Littrell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: alien-life

Trefil, James. Are We Unique? A Scientist Explores the Unparalleled Intelligence of the Human Mind (1997)***
Is this a case of "true, but trivial?"

What Trefil demonstrates here is that we are indeed unique and always will be regardless of how powerful and clever and "conscious" our computers become. He is NOT saying that we will be unsurpassed in intelligence or that we possess souls and computers don't. What Trefil is asserting is something much more modest. We are unique in the sense that there...more Trefil, James. Are We Unique? A Scientist Explores the Unparalleled Intelligence of the Human Mind (1997)***
Is this a case of "true, but trivial?"

What Trefil demonstrates here is that we are indeed unique and always will be regardless of how powerful and clever and "conscious" our computers become. He is NOT saying that we will be unsurpassed in intelligence or that we possess souls and computers don't. What Trefil is asserting is something much more modest. We are unique in the sense that there is nothing exactly like us. This is a "unique" akin to the "special" in "special education." We are special. It doesn't matter how filled or unfilled the universe is with intelligent life forms. We are and will be uniquely ourselves.

Trefil's main subsidiary argument, that the difference between animal consciousness and human consciousness is more than just a difference of degree, is more interesting. He asserts that the difference is so great that it constitutes a difference of kind. When things get sufficiently complex we have the "emergent property" phenomenon. As others have said, more is different, and what emerges is something that cannot always be predicted.

I also think he makes a nice argument for the possibility that we will not be able to build a computer more sophisticated than our brain. It could just be, he asserts, that something like Godel's theorem which states that any mathematical system of sufficient complexity includes statements that can't be proven or are contradictory, may be "waiting for us in complex systems" (p. 219) His point is there may be a practical barrier beyond which our very finite minds cannot go. I suspect he is right, and this is something worth pondering.

But there is a problem with the intent of this book. Notice first that the title refers to the "unparalleled" intelligence of the human mind, not the "unsurpassed." One could also say that the intelligence of e.g., a silverfish is "unparalleled." Trefil knows that our intelligence is very likely to be surpassed. This sly use of language is similar to his main assertion that we are "unique." It's true, but so what?

Perhaps Trefil set out to show that human consciousness is something that a computer could never achieve. To this end he surveyed the "landscape of opinion" on consciousness and found the following categories: "Deniers," those who deny that there is a "problem of consciousness at all–that once you understand what the neurons are doing, there's nothing else to explain" (pp. 182-183). He puts Daniel Dennett in this category. Next there are the "Mysterians," those who feel that the problem of consciousness will never be solved. And finally there are the "Materialists," like Francis Crick, who in his book, The Astonishing Hypothesis (1994), asserts that we are "in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and the associated molecules."

Trefil (who is a physicist) claims to be a member of this latter group. However I think that he has a lot of the "mysterian" in him. For example, he writes on page 173 that when he was courting his future wife he suddenly realized he loved her, and he realized he knew this with more certainty than he had ever known anything in physics or mathematics. He adds that an algorithm running on a Turing machine is never going to know anything in quite the same way.

I agree, but the knowing he is talking about is hardly just a knowing. It is a near total brain/body experience, and since he is an evolutionary, reproducing human being, it's a profound and extremely important experience. He isn't just "knowing." He is feeling and then some. Computers don't feel. So of course they cannot know something in quite the same way.

There are other (small) problems with Trefil's presentation, but I'll skip them and go straight to what I think is the most glaring: an omission of a category for those who believe that consciousness is simply an illusion, a device of the evolutionary mechanism. This category would include most evolutionary psychologists and Tor Norretranders, who wrote The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size (1991, 1998), a book I wish Trefil had read. From this point of view our consciousness is an emergent property of the evolutionary process, a mechanism that forces us to identify with the particular phenotype that we are and to work tirelessly for its advantage and to fear its disadvantage, especially its death. A computer, which has not gone through the same sort of process would not have a similar consciousness. On pages 184-185 Trefil encounters this point of view from the "Illusionists," as I will call them, but misses the significance of what they said to him. He writes that the neuroscientists with whom he was talking were "apt to brush off questions about consciousness with a wave of the hand and, 'Oh, it's just an illusion,' then get back to their work." Trefils claims these people are "deniers," not realizing that there is a world of difference between calling something an illusion and saying it doesn't exist. Illusions exist, and can be very powerful. Our consciousness is an illusion we can't help but believe.

I'd like to add that this idea of consciousness is an old one that can be found in the works of Buddhism, jnana yoga and the Vedas, and probably elsewhere. Our consciousness is an amazing experience, so overwhelming and so overpowering that it dominates all aspects of our existence. But it's just part of the illusion, the maya that separates us from the underlying truth of our existence. Our ego, our subjective sense of self, is also an illusion. Our individual consciousness is no different than the other person's. It is exactly the same: a mechanism of profound identification that fosters the delusion of separateness.

--a review by Dennis Littrell
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Oct 09, 2012 David Withun rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science

This would be just another run-of-the-mill "philosophy of mind: here's my take" book if it were not for the unique approach taken by Trefil. What made this book particularly interesting to read is that Trefil approaches the controversy over human uniqueness, intelligence, consciousness, etc. and its reproducibility from a third-way perspective. While maintaining a materialist stance, he simultaneously departs from the usual materialist party line and argues that humans differ in kind and not mer...more

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Sep 18, 2012 Mostafa Samir rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

يأخذك هذا الكتاب فى رحلة من قاع شجرة التصنيف البيولوجي إلى قمتها ثم ينتقل بك ويقوم بنفس الرحلة فى شجرة التصنيف التكنولوجي

يبدأ الكتاب بمناقشة الذكاء الحيواني وكيف بدأ فى الحيوانات الأولى إلى أن وصل إلى قمته فى الذكاء البشري ، ثم ينتقل إلى الآلات الحاسبة الأولى وكيف ارتقى "ذكاؤها" مع مرور الزمن إلى أن وصل إلى ها المستوى فى الكومبيوترات العملاقة

وفى خلال هذه الرحلة الدسمة بالمعرفة العلمية ، يحاول أن يستكشف الحدود بين ذكاء الحيوانات وذكاء الآلات والذكاء البشري ، وهل حقا ً الذكاءالبشري متفرد أم أنه ي...more

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Nov 02, 2012 Hamza rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science

كتاب رائع جدا يطرح فيه الكتاب تفوق العنصر البشري على باقي الكائنات الحية. يعزى هذا التفوق، بطريقة عفوية، إلى الذكاء البشري الفريد من نوعه. لكن الكاتب هنا يحاول، بطريقة علمية ممنهجة، البحث عن الأسباب والعوامل التي تجعل من بني البشر جنسا لا مثيل له. ـ

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Apr 22, 2009 Melissa Guimont rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

It's an interesting subject, however this book is a bit of a bore for the non-scientist.

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Jun 30, 2012 Ihsane rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

ممتع أكثر لمن يملك خلفية علمي. بكل الأحوال يستحق القراءة.

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Dec 24, 2007 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Embarrassingly, I wrote a review for Eve Spoke that may have actually been from my vague memory of this book. I read both a number of years ago and can't remember the specifics of either, beyond that I didn't dislike them. So there you go. "Was this review helpful?" - Indeed not!

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Are We Unique? (عالم المعرفة #323)

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