Books and Ideas iPhone application is now available

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bai_300x300 Last week I announced the new iPhone (and iPod Touch) application for the Brain Science Podcast. This week we are launching  a similar application for the Books and Ideas podcast. It features access to all episodes the episodes going back to December 2006, episode transcripts, and direct links to this website, my email and our new voice mail line at (206) 984-0358.

Go to the iTunes Store

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How Philosophy of Mind influences Artificial Intelligence

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The latest episode of Talking Robots is an interview with Inman Harvey of the University of Sussex. He observes that when researchers attempt to build automous robots their approach is strongly influenced by their philosophy of mind, even if that philosophy is only implicit. He also points out that what he calls "good old-fashioned AI" fails to represent how brains really work. This is a point I have emphasized repeatedly. Inman observes that approaches liked embodied artificial intellingence (which we discussued with Rolf Pfeifer in Episode 25) are really based on a different philosophy of mind that "good old-fashioned AI." His paper Philosophy of Mind Using a Screwdriver is available as a PDF.
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My Buffy Between the Lines "acting" debut

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bbtlvalentine.jpg I have a small role in the special Valentine's episode of my favorite podcast audio drama Buffy Between the Lines. This is a stand alone episode that you can enjoy even if you have never watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This episode was written by Tabitha Grace Smith, who I interviewed for an upcoming episode of Books and Ideas, which should be up within the next few days. Several other podcasters including JC Hutchins also have guest roles in this episode.
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