rapaport@adara.cs.Buffalo.EDU (William J. Rapaport) (04/09/90)
UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
CENTER FOR COGNITIVE SCIENCE
PRESENTS
ROGER PENROSE
Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics
Oxford University
Visiting Distinguished Professor of Physics
Syracuse University
This talk will be based on Penrose's book, _The Emperor's New Mind_.
For decades, the proponents of artificial intelligence have argued that
computers will soon be doing everything that a human mind can do.
Admittedly, computers now play chess at the grandmaster level, but do
they understand the game as we do? Will a computer eventually be able
to do everything a human mind can do?
In his book, Penrose - eminent physicist and winner, with Stephen Hawk-
ing, of the prestigious Wolf prize - puts forward his view that there
are some facets of human thinking that can never be emulated by a
machine. Although the book ranges widely over relativity theory, quan-
tum mechanics, and cosmology, its central concern is what philosophers
call the ``mind-body problem.'' Penrose examines what physics and
mathematics can tell us about how the mind works, what they can't, and
what we need to know to understand the physical processes of conscious-
ness. In particular, he argues that there is an important gap in our
knowledge at the place where classical and quantum physics meet. He is
among a growing number of physicists who think Einstein wasn't being
stubborn when he said his ``little finger'' told him that quantum
mechanics is incomplete, and he concludes that laws even deeper than
quantum mechanics are essential for the operation of a mind. To support
this contention, Penrose's book covers such topics as complex numbers,
Turing machines, complexity theory, quantum mechanics, Godel undecida-
bility, phase space, Hilbert space, black holes, white holes, Hawking
radiation, entropy, quasicrystals, the structure of the brain, and
scores of other subjects.
Monday, April 16, 1990
4:00 - 6:00 pm
Knox 109
Amherst Campus
For further information, contact Dawn Styres, Secretary, UB Center for
Cognitive Science, 716-636-2694, styres@cs.buffalo.edu