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The Open University

Machines, minds and computers

The Open University via OpenLearn

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Overview

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Computers are becoming smarter and may soon become intelligent. This free course, Machines, minds and computers, looks at what intelligence is, how computers may become so, and whether they ever will really be intelligent. It is aimed at people interested in understanding what intelligence and thinking really are, and who want to understand the underpinnings of our ideas about them.

Syllabus

  • Introduction
  • Learning outcomes
  • 1 Machines
  • 1 Machines
  • 1.1 The tool-building animal
  • 1.1.1 Why build artificial creatures?
  • 1.1.2 What was being built? Or imagined?
  • 1.1.3 What has been the public attitude to artificial creatures?
  • 1.2 Tools and machines
  • 2 Minds
  • 2 Minds
  • 2.1 What is mind?
  • 2.2 Artificial intelligence
  • 2.3 Cybernetics
  • 3 AI
  • 3 AI
  • 3.1 Enter the digital computer
  • 3.1.1 What is intelligence?
  • 3.2 Cybernetics and Symbolic AI
  • 3.3 Artificial intelligence – the quest
  • 3.3.1 Weak artificial intelligence
  • 3.3.2 Strong artificial intelligence
  • 4 Computers
  • 4 Computers
  • 4.1 The digital computer
  • 4.1.1 Formal systems
  • 4.1.2 Automatic formal systems
  • 4.1.3 Principle of Automation
  • 4.1.4 Interpreted automatic formal systems
  • 4.2 What computers can do
  • 4.2.1 Models
  • 4.2.2 Optimisation problems
  • 4.3 What computers can't do?
  • 5 Conclusion – Symbolic AI and Cybernetics
  • 5 Conclusion – Symbolic AI and Cybernetics
  • Keep on learning
  • References
  • Further reading
  • Acknowledgements

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Reviews

5.0 rating, based on 1 Class Central review

3.6 rating at OpenLearn based on 11 ratings

Start your review of Machines, minds and computers

  • Profile image for Enrique Enriquez
    Enrique Enriquez @EEnriquez
    17
    Having completed "Machines, Minds and Computers," I found the course description to be a precise reflection of its content, offering a rigorous intellectual panorama from historical automata to the philosophical foundations of AI. The structure logi…
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