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Is There a Future for AI Without Representation?

Published: 01 March 2007 Publication History

Abstract

This paper investigates the prospects of Rodney Brooks' proposal for AI without representation. It turns out that the supposedly characteristic features of "new AI" (embodiment, situatedness, absence of reasoning, and absence of representation) are all present in conventional systems: "New AI" is just like old AI. Brooks proposal boils down to the architectural rejection of central control in intelligent agents--Which, however, turns out to be crucial. Some of more recent cognitive science suggests that we might do well to dispose of the image of intelligent agents as central representation processors. If this paradigm shift is achieved, Brooks' proposal for cognition without representation appears promising for full-blown intelligent agents--Though not for conscious agents.

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Published In

cover image Minds and Machines
Minds and Machines  Volume 17, Issue 1
Mar 2007
124 pages

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Kluwer Academic Publishers

United States

Publication History

Published: 01 March 2007

Author Tags

  1. AI
  2. Artificial intelligence
  3. Brooks
  4. Central control
  5. Computationalism
  6. Embodiment
  7. Function
  8. Grounding
  9. Representation
  10. Representationalism
  11. Subsumption architecture

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