Logic and Information (Cambridge Tracts in Theoretical Computer Science

by Keith Devlin

In this provocative and ground-breaking book, Keith Devlin argues that in order to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of intelligence and knowledge acquisition, we must broaden our concept of logic. Classical logic, beginning with the work of Aristotle, has developed into a powerful and rigorous mathematical theory with many applications in mathematics and computer science, but it has proved woefully inadequate in the search for artificial intelligence. The new kind of logic, also mathematically based, outlined by Professor Devlin is the culmination of collaborative research among some of the world's leading logicians, philosophers, linguists, psychologists, and computer scientists. It introduces the concepts of infon, a quantum of information, and situations, a dynamical generalization of sets, and is capable of handlng the issues involved in human communication, thought, speech, and machine information processing.

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Dr. Keith Devlin is a co-founder and Executive Director of the university's H-STAR institute, a Consulting Professor in the Department of Mathematics, a co-founder of the Stanford Media X research network, and a Senior Researcher at CSLI. He is a World Economic Forum Fellow and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His current research is focused on the use of different media to teach and communicate mathematics to diverse audiences. He also works on the design of information/reasoning systems for intelligence analysis. Other research interests include: theory of information, models of reasoning, applications of mathematical techniques in the study of communication, and mathematical cognition. He has written 26 books and over 80 published research articles. Recipient of the Pythagoras Prize, the Peano Prize, the Carl Sagan Award, and the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics Communications Award. He is "the Math Guy" on National Public Radio.

Reviews

[Rodrigo]

It' hard.
I don't usually find myself backtracking in a book, just so I can understand what the hell's going on, but this book has made me do it 4 times already.
It's really, really hard, but it doesn't paint itself like it was.
I just wanted something light to read on the bus, and picked a book with some random god-like figure picking binary code from an eclipse.
The book is trap, posing as an informal introduction to a relatively intuitive subject, when in fact it's much more difficult precisely BECAUSE it isn't easy to draw a clear line between it's subject matter and real life situations.
Also, still no applications.
Logic without applications is useless.