• Dwight Ellefsen/FPG/Archive Dwight Ellefsen/FPG/Archive The Laws of ThoughtTom Griffiths, William Collins (UK) Macmillan (US) FOR nearly 70 years, cognitive researchers have been fighting a civil war. • On one side is computationalism, which argues intelligence is best explained by rules, symbols and logic that can be expressed in equations. • On the other is connectionism, where intelligence emerges from vast, connected networks modelled on the brain’s neurons, and no one component is intelligent but somehow the system as a whole is. • That battle has shaped everything from cognitive science to the artificial intelligence that is now transforming the global economy. • This month, two new books wade in from opposite sides. • For me, the standout isThe Laws of Thought: The quest for a mathematical theory of the mind.

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  • The Laws of Thought Tom Griffiths, William Collins (UK) Macmillan (US) FOR nearly 70 years, cognitive researchers have been fighting a civil war. On one side is computationalism, which argues intelligence is best explained by rules, symbols and logic that can be expressed in equations. On the other is connectionism, where intelligence emerges from vast, connected networks modelled on the brain’s neurons, and no one component is intelligent but somehow the system as a whole is. That battle has shaped everything from cognitive science to the artificial intelligence that is now transforming the g

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