English | 19 February 2025 | ASIN: B0DXV89NQS | 394 pages| PDF | 7 MB
To explore this potential, the book develops a thought experiment called the Prediction Room, a reference to John Searle’s influential Chinese Room argument, in which a human agent processes language by following a set of opaque written rules without possessing an inherent understanding of the language. The book proposes a new Room model—the Prediction Room with its resident Prediction Agent—generalizing the working of large language models. Working through a wide range of topics in cognitive science, the book challenges the conclusion of Searle’s thought experiment, that discredited contemporary artificial intelligences (AI), through the suggestion that the Prediction Room offers a means of exploring how new ideas in AI can provide productive alternatives to traditional understandings of human cognition. In considering the implications of this, the book reviews an array of topics and issues in cognitive science to uncover new ideas and reinforce older ideas about the mental mechanisms involved in both sides. The discussion of these topics in the book serves two purposes. First, it aims to stimulate new thinking about familiar topics like language acquisition or the nature and acquisition of concepts.
