Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
the theoretical frameworks we inherited from artificial intelligence and literary
theory and our practical experience of analyzing and building computational
media systems.
Core texts and issues
In this partial bibliography, we list the core works that formed the center of our
discourse, as well as a few other selections to indicate the diversity of interests
in the group. We have divided them somewhat arbitrarily into categories, but
in fact almost all of our readings crossed disciplinary boundaries.
Artificial intelligence and cognitive science
At the time we founded NI, mainstream artificial intelligence seemed bogged
down in a view of mind based on mathematical logic and objective represen-
tation. Cognitive science developed theories of mind with similar assumptions
and faced many of the same problems. Dissatisfied with this, we read some
critiques from within the field, and identified for ourselves what we thought
was useful. From traditional AI, the respective work of Marvin Minsky and
Roger Schank was geared to less formal forms of knowledge, including narra-
tive. Schank's group had a longstanding interest in story understanding and
generation, and Minsky's Society of Mind theory had integrated some of these
ideas into a computational framework.
The situated-action critique of AI (Phil Agre, David Chapman, Rodney
Brooks, Gary Drescher, and others) was also influential. Drescher's work drew
on constructivist roots that many of us shared. Agre's work was most informed
by exposure to literary and social theory, and his paper “Writing & Represen-
tation” was one of the ”founding documents” of the group. George Lakoff 's
work on metaphor and critique of objective representation was also influential
in our thinking.
Agre, Philip (2001). Writing & representation. In M. Mateas & P. Sengers (Eds.),
Narrative
Intelligence
. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Originally circulated in 1989
as an unpublished MIT AI Lab report.
Dennett, Daniel & Marcel Kinsbourne (1992). Time and the observer: The where and when
of consciousness in the brain
Behavioral and brain sciences
,
15
(2), 183-200.
Drescher, Gary (1991).
Made up minds: A constructivist approach to artificial intelligence
.
Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
