wolit@rabbit.UUCP (08/22/83)
[I'm new to this group, and don't know whether this book has been mentioned yet. My apologies if so.] "The Fifth Generation" (subtitled, "Artificial Intelligence and Japan's Computer Challenge to the World"), Edward A. Feigenbaum and Pamela McCorduck, Addison-Wesley, 1983. A book describing a five-year advanced computer project is something of a quaint curiosity, since the book itself will probably be around long after the project has been dismantled, while the distribution of ideas using the printed word is itself likely to be eclipsed by the subject of this volume (eventually). Written in entirely non-technical language, "The Fifth Generation" seems to be aimed at managers in American industry, particularly in those firms capable, perhaps, of mounting a research-and-development effort in answer to the challenge which, if it was not raised by the Japanese, has certainly been accepted by them. The tale is told in three parts: first, a review of the state-of-the-art in computing in general, and artificial intelligence -- especially "expert systems -- in particular, with heavy emphasis on the evidence for an exponential growth in the importance of such work a few years hence; next, a detailed examination of the Japanese effort, including the ideas, companies, and people behind their Institute for New Generation Computer Technology (ICOT); and finally, a depressingly pessimistic appraisal of the preparations -- or rather, lack thereof -- of other Western countries (particularly the U.S.) for the changing world order about to be realized thanks to the explosion in intellectual power soon to be detonated. Although the book is readable by the lay public, there is probably no skilled practitioner of the art who has had the time or opportunity to keep abreast of all aspects of this rapidly unfolding field, and this timely piece (first printed in March) should be welcomed by all subscribers to this network. Jan Wolitzky, Bell Labs, Murray Hill