Thinking as Computation: A First Course
Hector J. Levesque
Abstract
This book guides students through an exploration of the idea that thinking might be understood as a form of computation. Students make the connection between thinking and computing by learning to write computer programs for a variety of tasks that require thought, including solving puzzles, understanding natural language, recognizing objects in visual scenes, planning courses of action, and playing strategic games. The material is presented with minimal technicalities and is accessible to undergraduate students with no specialized knowledge or technical background beyond high school mathematic ... More
This book guides students through an exploration of the idea that thinking might be understood as a form of computation. Students make the connection between thinking and computing by learning to write computer programs for a variety of tasks that require thought, including solving puzzles, understanding natural language, recognizing objects in visual scenes, planning courses of action, and playing strategic games. The material is presented with minimal technicalities and is accessible to undergraduate students with no specialized knowledge or technical background beyond high school mathematics. Students use Prolog, learning to express what they need as a Prolog program and letting Prolog search for answers. After an introduction to the basic concepts, the book offers three chapters on Prolog, covering back-chaining, programs and queries, and how to write the sorts of Prolog programs used in the book. The book follows this with case studies of tasks that appear to require thought, then looks beyond Prolog to consider learning, explaining, and propositional reasoning. Most of the chapters conclude with short bibliographic notes and exercises.
Keywords:
computation,
thinking,
computing,
computer programs,
puzzles,
natural language,
objects,
visual scenes,
strategic games,
Prolog
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2012 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780262016995 |
| Published to MIT Press Scholarship Online: August 2013 |
DOI:10.7551/mitpress/9780262016995.001.0001 |
