
Thinking as Computation
A First Course
Hector J. Levesque(Author)
MIT Press
Published on 3. February 2012
Book
Hardback
322 pages
978-0-262-01699-5 (ISBN)
Description
Students explore the idea that thinking is a form of computation by learning to write simple computer programs for tasks that require thought. This book guides students through an exploration of the idea that thinking might be understood as a form of computation. Students make the connection between thinking and computing by learning to write computer programs for a variety of tasks that require thought, including solving puzzles, understanding natural language, recognizing objects in visual scenes, planning courses of action, and playing strategic games. The material is presented with minimal technicalities and is accessible to undergraduate students with no specialized knowledge or technical background beyond high school mathematics. Students use Prolog (without having to learn algorithms: "Prolog without tears!"), learning to express what they need as a Prolog program and letting Prolog search for answers.After an introduction to the basic concepts, Thinking as Computation offers three chapters on Prolog, covering back-chaining, programs and queries, and how to write the sorts of Prolog programs used in the book. The book follows this with case studies of tasks that appear to require thought, then looks beyond Prolog to consider learning, explaining, and propositional reasoning. Most of the chapters conclude with short bibliographic notes and exercises. The book is based on a popular course at the University of Toronto and can be used in a variety of classroom contexts, by students ranging from first-year liberal arts undergraduates to more technically advanced computer science students.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge, Mass.
United States
Publishing group
MIT Press Ltd
Target group
Interest Age: From 18 years
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
139 s/w Abbildungen
139 b&w illus.
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 178 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
680 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-262-01699-5 (9780262016995)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
08/2017
MIT Press
€27.70
Article exhausted; check different version

E-Book
01/2012
MIT Press
€29.49
Available for download
Person
Hector J. Levesque is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Toronto. He is the coauthor (with Gerhard Lakemeyer) of The Logic of Knowledge Bases (MIT Press, 2001) and coeditor (with Ronald J. Brachman) of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (MIT Press, 1992).