東華大學圖書館 |

Language: English

Help

回圖書館首頁

手機版館藏查詢

Back to Search results for [ null ]

Switch To: Labeled | MARC Mode | ISBD

Descartes' daughters: Thinking-machi...

Lausa, Dawn E.

Linked to FindBook

Google Book

Amazon

博客來

Descartes' daughters: Thinking-machines and the emergence of posthuman complexity.

Record Type:	Electronic resources : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	Descartes' daughters: Thinking-machines and the emergence of posthuman complexity./
Author:	Lausa, Dawn E.
Published:	Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, : 2009,
Description:	294 p.
Notes:	Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 71-06, Section: A.
Contained By:	Dissertations Abstracts International71-06A.
Subject:	American studies. -
Online resource:	http://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=3381583
ISBN:	9781109450521

Descartes' daughters: Thinking-machines and the emergence of posthuman complexity.
Lausa, Dawn E.

Descartes' daughters: Thinking-machines and the emergence of posthuman complexity. - Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2009 - 294 p.

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 71-06, Section: A.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Syracuse University, 2009.

The very nature of the machine seems to signify determinacy, to preclude it from calling upon the kind of indeterminate creativity that characterizes human thought and reason. Indeed, at least since Descartes, the machine and the human have each been conceived precisely in opposition to one another, and in this sense, each is strictly inconceivable without the other. But, already within Descartes, the concept of contingency, expressed as speech, will, reason, and soul, thus folded into its own material actualizations, became the function of contingency. And this function, once sundered from substance, could be infinitely iterated both within and beyond the human. Thus, each iteration of the thinking-machine redistributes the component concepts of the human and the machine across the boundary of their respective identities, while transforming and destabilizing our concepts of both. Chapter One begins by examining Descartes' concept of the human, and the significance of its identification in opposition to the machine, arguing that the effect of Descartes' multiple iterations of these oppositional concepts is to render the relationships among their components contingent rather than essential, and to transform the surrounding discourse of substance ontology to one of becoming function. Chapter Two examines the calculating engines of Charles Babbage as material iterations of the thinking-machine, and the discursive formations surrounding them, focusing upon an emerging functional image of thought. Chapter Three considers the ontological uncertainties that the thinking-machine provokes as a source of anxiety surrounding Maelzel's automaton chess-player, as evidenced in numerous texts, including Edgar Allan Poe's well-known essay and selected short stories by Herman Melville, Edward Page Mitchell, and Ambrose Bierce. Chapter Four is concerned with the proliferation of both interest and success in the production of thinking-machines during the 1940s and 1950s, focusing on Norbert Wiener's work in cybernetics and Alan Turing's universal machines. The Conclusion takes up contemporary debates, suggesting that the new patterns that emerge from these transformations, and the uncertainties about (human) identity that they produce, provoke anxiety precisely insofar as they persist in conceiving "what matters" as a substance rather than as a function.

ISBN: 9781109450521Subjects--Topical Terms:

2122720
American studies.
Subjects--Index Terms:

Complex systems

Descartes' daughters: Thinking-machines and the emergence of posthuman complexity.
LDR:03616nmm a2200421 4500 001 2267681
005 20200724103036.5
008 220629s2009 ||||||||||||||||| ||eng d
020 $a 9781109450521
035 $a (MiAaPQ)AAI3381583
035 $a AAI3381583
040 $a MiAaPQ $c MiAaPQ
100 1 $a Lausa, Dawn E. $3 3544946
245 1 0 $a Descartes' daughters: Thinking-machines and the emergence of posthuman complexity.
260 1 $a Ann Arbor : $b ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, $c 2009
300 $a 294 p.
500 $a Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 71-06, Section: A.
500 $a Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
500 $a Advisor: Lambert, Gregg.
502 $a Thesis (Ph.D.)--Syracuse University, 2009.
520 $a The very nature of the machine seems to signify determinacy, to preclude it from calling upon the kind of indeterminate creativity that characterizes human thought and reason. Indeed, at least since Descartes, the machine and the human have each been conceived precisely in opposition to one another, and in this sense, each is strictly inconceivable without the other. But, already within Descartes, the concept of contingency, expressed as speech, will, reason, and soul, thus folded into its own material actualizations, became the function of contingency. And this function, once sundered from substance, could be infinitely iterated both within and beyond the human. Thus, each iteration of the thinking-machine redistributes the component concepts of the human and the machine across the boundary of their respective identities, while transforming and destabilizing our concepts of both. Chapter One begins by examining Descartes' concept of the human, and the significance of its identification in opposition to the machine, arguing that the effect of Descartes' multiple iterations of these oppositional concepts is to render the relationships among their components contingent rather than essential, and to transform the surrounding discourse of substance ontology to one of becoming function. Chapter Two examines the calculating engines of Charles Babbage as material iterations of the thinking-machine, and the discursive formations surrounding them, focusing upon an emerging functional image of thought. Chapter Three considers the ontological uncertainties that the thinking-machine provokes as a source of anxiety surrounding Maelzel's automaton chess-player, as evidenced in numerous texts, including Edgar Allan Poe's well-known essay and selected short stories by Herman Melville, Edward Page Mitchell, and Ambrose Bierce. Chapter Four is concerned with the proliferation of both interest and success in the production of thinking-machines during the 1940s and 1950s, focusing on Norbert Wiener's work in cybernetics and Alan Turing's universal machines. The Conclusion takes up contemporary debates, suggesting that the new patterns that emerge from these transformations, and the uncertainties about (human) identity that they produce, provoke anxiety precisely insofar as they persist in conceiving "what matters" as a substance rather than as a function.
590 $a School code: 0659.
650 4 $a American studies. $3 2122720
650 4 $a Philosophy of Science. $3 894954
650 4 $a Science history. $3 2144850
650 4 $a American literature. $3 523234
650 4 $a Artificial intelligence. $3 516317
653 $a Complex systems
653 $a Complexity
653 $a Complexity theory
653 $a Identity
653 $a Mitchell, Edward Page
653 $a Posthuman
653 $a Thinking-machine
690 $a 0323
690 $a 0402
690 $a 0585
690 $a 0591
690 $a 0800
710 2 $a Syracuse University. $3 1017440
773 0 $t Dissertations Abstracts International $g 71-06A.
790 $a 0659
791 $a Ph.D.
792 $a 2009
793 $a English
856 4 0 $u http://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=3381583