Knowledge in formation: The machine-modeled frame of mind

Journal Article · Tue Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1996 · Technology in Society

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-791X(96)00003-6· OSTI ID:518160

Shore, B

Artificial Intelligence researchers have used the digital computer as a model for the human mind in two different ways. Most obviously, the computer has been used as a tool on which simulations of thinking-as-programs are developed and tested. Less obvious, but of great significance, is the use of the computer as a conceptual model for the human mind. This essay traces the sources of this machine-modeled conception of cognition in a great variety of social institutions and everyday experienced treating them as {open_quotes}cultural models{close_quotes} which have contributed to the naturalness of The mine-as-machine paradigm for many Americans. The roots of these models antedate the actual development of modern computers, and take the form of a {open_quotes}modularity schema{close_quotes} that has shaped the cultural and cognitive landscape of modernity. The essay concludes with a consideration of some of the cognitive consequences of this extension of machine logic into modern life, and proposes an important distinction between information processing models of thought and meaning-making in how human cognition is conceptualized.

• OSTI ID: 518160
• Journal Information: Technology in Society, Journal Name: Technology in Society Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 18; ISSN 0160-791X; ISSN TESODY
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
BRAIN
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DECISION MAKING
DIGITAL COMPUTERS
INFORMATION