Some love it, some hate it, but The Emperor's New Mind, physicist Roger Penrose's 1989 treatise attacking the foundations of strong artificial intelligence, is crucial for anyone interested in the history of thinking about AI and consciousness. Part survey of modern physics, part exploration of the philosophy of mind, the book is not for casual readers - though it's not overly technical, it rarely pauses to let the reader catch a breath. The overview of relativity and quantum theory, written by a master, is priceless and uncontroversial. The exploration of consciousness and AI, though, is generally considered as resting on shakier ground.Penrose claims that there is an intimate, perhaps unknowable relation between quantum effects and our thinking, and ultimately derives his anti-AI stance from his proposition that some, if not all, of our thinking is non-algorithmic. Of course, these days we believe that there are other avenues to AI than traditional algorithmic programming; while he has been accused of setting up straw robots to knock down, this accusation is unfair. Little was then known about the power of neural networks and behavior-based robotics to simulate (and, some would say, produce) intelligent problem-solving behavior. Whether these tools will lead to strong AI is ultimately a question of belief, not proof, and The Emperor's New Mind offers powerful arguments useful to believer and nonbeliever alike.

有人喜欢它，有人讨厌它，但《皇帝的新思维》，物理学家罗杰-彭罗斯（Roger Penrose）1989年的论文，攻击了强大的人工智能的基础，对于任何对人工智能和意识的思考历史感兴趣的人来说都是至关重要的。这本书部分是对现代物理学的调查，部分是对心智哲学的探索，不适合随便阅读--尽管它没有过度的技术性，但它很少停顿下来让读者喘口气。由大师撰写的相对论和量子论概述是无价之宝，没有争议的。彭罗斯声称，在量子效应和我们的思维之间存在着一种亲密的、也许是不可知的关系，并最终从他的主张中得出了他的反人工智能的立场，即我们的一些（如果不是全部）思维是非算法的。当然，这些天我们相信，除了传统的算法编程之外，还有其他的人工智能途径；虽然他被指责为设置了稻草机器人来打倒，但这种指责是不公平的。当时，人们对神经网络和基于行为的机器人模拟（以及有人说产生）智能解决问题的行为的能力知之甚少。这些工具是否会导致强大的人工智能，最终是一个信念的问题，而不是证据的问题，《皇帝的新思维》提供了对信徒和非信徒都有用的强大论据。