Rolf Pfeifer - Böcker

An exploration of embodied intelligence and its implications points toward a theory of intelligence in general; with case studies of intelligent systems in ubiquitous computing, business and management, human memory, and robotics.How could the body influence our thinking when it seems obvious that the brain controls the body? In How the Body Shapes the Way We Think, Rolf Pfeifer and Josh Bongard demonstrate that thought is not independent of the body but is tightly constrained, and at the same time enabled, by it. They argue that the kinds of thoughts we are capable of have their foundation in our embodiment—in our morphology and the material properties of our bodies.This crucial notion of embodiment underlies fundamental changes in the field of artificial intelligence over the past two decades, and Pfeifer and Bongard use the basic methodology of artificial intelligence—"understanding by building"—to describe their insights. If we understand how to design and build intelligent systems, they reason, we will better understand intelligence in general. In accessible, nontechnical language, and using many examples, they introduce the basic concepts by building on recent developments in robotics, biology, neuroscience, and psychology to outline a possible theory of intelligence. They illustrate applications of such a theory in ubiquitous computing, business and management, and the psychology of human memory. Embodied intelligence, as described by Pfeifer and Bongard, has important implications for our understanding of both natural and artificial intelligence.

This book is devoted to the rapidly growing highly interdisciplinary field of embodied artificial intelligence involving researchers from areas as diverse as computer science, engineering, cognitive science, neuroscience, biology, biomechanics, material science, and linguistics. Originating from a Dagstuhl seminar, the revised reviewed papers presented in this book constitute a representative state-of-the-art in the field of embodied artificial intelligence. The 23 papers presented together with an introductory overview are organized in topical sections on- philosophical and conceptual issues- information, dynamics, and morphology- principles of embodiment for real world applications-developmental approaches- artificial evolution and self-reconfiguration

In psychoanalysis as in most other fields of science, English is the in­ ternationallanguage. Not being a native speaker of English, one is confronted with much higher barriers when communicating clinical observations and theoretical reflections. Thus, in the early 1960s, Ulrich Moser raised (in German!) some fundamental questions con­ cerning the methods, theories, and philosophy of science of psycho­ analysis, questions that became a topic of discussion in the English speaking psychoanalytic community more than a decade later (see, e. g. , the "theory crisis" in psychoanalysis). Now, three of us, who pre­ viously worked at Moser's institute in Zurich, have decided to dedi­ cate this English book on psychoanalytic research to Ulrich Moser, supplementing the collection of papers now being published by him and Ilka von Zeppelin. This is not only intended to be an acknowl­ edgement of his achievements in psychoanalytic thought but also an illustration of the kind of interdisciplinary research that he directly or indirectly initiated, both in clinical psychoanalysis (part I of the book) and in empirical psychotherapy research (part II). In working on this project we ourselves encountered the language barrier mentioned above. Without the competent, careful, and friend­ ly help of Mrs. Katharina Goodwin, a translator who was willing to embark on the adventure of entering into a new field of thought and translated most of our German manuscripts, this book could not have been published. Dr.

This Festschrift volume, published in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Artificial Intelligence, includes 34 refereed papers written by leading researchers in the field of Artificial Intelligence. The papers were carefully selected from the invited lectures given at the 50th Anniversary Summit of AI, held at the Centro Stefano Franscini, Monte Verita, Ascona, Switzerland, July 9-14, 2006. The summit provided a venue for discussions on a broad range of topics.