Of minds and machines
In the 1950s and ’60s — when MIT’s Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts were building networks of artificial neurons, John McCarthy and Marvin Minsky were helping to create the discipline of artificial intelligence and Noam Chomsky was revolutionizing the study of linguistics — hopes were high that tools emerging from the new science of computation would soon unravel the mysteries of human thought.As the computational complexity of even the most common human cognitive tasks became clear, however, researchers trimmed their sails. Today, “artificial intelligence,” or AI, generally refers to the type of technology that helps focus point-and-shoot cameras or lets people verbally navigate airline reservation systems.The central theme of “Brains, Minds and Machines” — the last of a series of symposia celebrating MIT’s 150th anniversary — is that it’s time for artificial-intelligence research, cognitive science and neuroscience to get ambitious again. The symposium was, in part, a launch party for...