Prometheus Posted February 28, 2006 Report Share Posted February 28, 2006 (edited) Just wanted to poll the forum here to find out if anyone has read "Shadows of the Mind" by Roger Penrose and also "A Different Universe" by Robert B. Laughlin. What did you think of it? Dinesh. Edited February 28, 2006 by Prometheus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hal Posted March 15, 2006 Report Share Posted March 15, 2006 (edited) I've not read Shadows of the Mind, but I have read the previous book Penrose wrote, "The Emporer's New Mind". As an introduction to some very interesting themes in maths and physics, its brilliant. The chapters on Turing machines, the Church-Turing thesis, and Cantor's hierarchy of infinities are especially superb, and constitute the best 'popular-level' introduction to these topics that I've encountered. His discussion of the Mandelbrot set while defending Platonism is also very interesting, and I think it constitutes a plausible defence of mathematical realism. As a book about consciousness however, I wouldnt be so quick to recommend it. For a better attack on computationalism, I'd recommend anything by Hubert Dreyfus (particularly "What Computers Can't Do"), or (to a lesser extent) John Searle (eg "The Rediscovery of the Mind"). Edited March 15, 2006 by Hal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.