A fresh and philosophical look at thinking itself, and an invitation to rethink what the mind is.
Trying to understand the human mind in the age of AI.
In their compelling book, San Francisco Bay Area scholars Suri and McClelland propose a view of the brain as a neural network, where thought emerges from physical interactions among neurons. They liken the mind to a flowing river—not located in any one part, but arising from a continuous stream of activity. While no single neuron “thinks,” the network’s dynamics give rise to mental life. The authors draw parallels to modern AI systems, where emergent properties stem from interactions in network elements. Blending psychology, computer science, and mathematics, Suri and McClelland present a rich but accessible explanation of how physical processes in the brain create the mind. Their activation-based view of behavior rejects explanations based on pleasure, pain, or preference. Instead, “our thoughts are patterns of activation over an ensemble of neurons in our brains.” They favor a “connectionist” model over the symbolic processing view still popular in some areas of AI. Through diagrams, analogies, and imagined Socratic dialogues between historical and fictional figures, the book examines complex questions with clarity and creativity. While they believe intelligence can emerge in both biological and artificial systems, there’s no immediate cause to worry about our futures—the authors argue that human brains still remain more flexible, adaptable, and efficient. Though AI systems are growing increasingly complex and sophisticated, they remind us that a mystery remains in how human minds truly work. Rich in insight and imagination, this is a fascinating read and a guide for deeper exploration of how researchers approach understanding human brains and designing AI systems.
A fresh and philosophical look at thinking itself, and an invitation to rethink what the mind is.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9781541605268
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
IN THE NEWS
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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