Reviews (1)

subjective extraction of clusters
The book is relatively brief, given the technical nature of its chapters, each written by different authors. Many clustering methods are described. Most can be seen to have some degree of subjectivity, in defining what ends up in a given cluster. Or whether a cluster even exists or not.
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Subjects:  1. Applied    2. Artificial Intelligence - General    3. Cluster analysis    4. Computer Books: General    5. Computers    6. Computers - General Information    7. Congresses    8. Data mining    9. Database Management - General    10. Discriminant analysis    11. General    12. Artificial intelligence    13. Automation of library & information processes    14. Computers / Interactive Media    15. Data capture & analysis    16. Text & document processing: general   

Reviews (1)

BPEL just may be the future of business data communications
There have been an entire bowl of alphabet soup regarding various kinds of distributed processing systems. All of them, in their time, achieved a certain level of usage. None of them has done much to change the basic way we do business communications. That may be changing.
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Subjects:  1. Certification Guides - General    2. Computer Architecture - General    3. Computer Bks - General Information    4. Computer Books: General    5. Computers    6. Computers - General Information    7. Data Modeling & Design    8. Computer architecture & logic design    9. Computer modelling & simulation    10. Internet languages   

Reviews (4)

searching for the basic algorithms
The central idea in the book is to analyse what evolution has provided us. In the form of ants being able to find the shortest path over terrain. This ability has inspired the research described herein.
The intelligence and wisdom of ants
Being an ant isn't very complex, but it's a daily fight for life. The losers in that fight don't count, but the winners get to vote.
A comprehensive and very readable introduction
Fifteen years after the elegant double-bridge experiments by Deneubourg et al. that formed the basis of the Ant Colony Optimization algorithm, Marco Dorigo, the inventor of ACO, and Thomas St�tzle, an expert on stochastic local search methods, have pooled their knowledge to summarize the current state of the art.
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Subjects:  1. Ants    2. Behavior    3. Mathematical models    4. Mathematical optimization    5. Mathematics    6. Probability & Statistics - General    7. Reference    8. Science/Mathematics    9. Artificial intelligence    10. Cybernetics & systems theory   

Editorial Review

Jeff Hawkins, the high-tech success story behind PalmPilots and theRedwood Neuroscience Institute, does a lot of thinking about thinking.In Read more

Reviews (66)

A Great Read on a Very Fascinating Topic
An easy read, yet truly insightful and entertaining. I do believe that most Humans have thought (and do think) about the subject... what makes one person more intelligent than others... why are humans more intelligent than other animals... how come animals don't seem to inherit their parents learnings... one could argue that despite our superior intelligence we seem to be making the same historical mistakes... would be fascinating to explore that topic... do humans lack intelligence when it comes to repeating historical mistakes... or is that due to some other capabilities/attributes taking over?

Open your mind
A compelling, fascinating, and elegant explanation of how the brain may work, as detailed by Treo/Palm Pilot creator Hawkins. Explains the brain and neural networking as one big pattern-recognition algorithm. You'll find yourself analyzing and recognizing your own thought processes and behaviors in a very different way after you finish this. Concluding passages detailing future development of true AI and intelligent machines feature some really exciting stuff.

Exciting and enjoyable
This book is excellent! And intriguing.
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Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence    2. Artificial Intelligence - General    3. Brain    4. Cognitive Psychology    5. Computers - General Information    6. Intellect    7. Intelligence    8. Medical    9. Neural networks (Computer scie    10. Neurology - General   

Reviews (12)

A technical approach towards causality
This is a very interesing book that Judea Pearl worte. The topic is currently of general interest for diverse fields as economics, social sciences and biology, however, this book is not intended for practitoners from these field who face a special problem and search for a possible solution. If you want to buy this book for this reason you will not be able to extract this information for this book. The reason therefor is that important technics like Bayesian Networks or Structural Equations are treated in 3 pages in each case. Judea Pearl assumes that the reader is already familiar with such methods beforehand. (Readers interested in the later subject are strongly refered to Bollen's book "Structural Equations with latent variables".)
What is the cause of intolerance?

Important but difficult
The scientific research community has adopted rigorous methods to eliminate the need for subjective judgments about many things, but when it comes to testing whether X causes Y, they revert to intuition and hand-waving. This book makes a strong argument that we shouldn't accept that. It demonstrates that it is possible to turn intuitions about causation into hypotheses that are unambiguous and testable.
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Subjects:  1. Causation    2. Epistemology    3. General    4. Philosophy    5. Probabilities    6. Research & Methodology    7. Science    8. Epistemology, theory of knowledge    9. Philosophy / General    10. Philosophy of science    11. Social Science    12. Methodology    13. Statistics    14. Cognitive science    15. Artificial Intelligence    16. Mathematics    17. Probability   

Reviews (30)

Content left as an exercise
I had the "pleasure" of being exposed to this nightmare of a book in a bachelor level course. I am told that it is normal to use this book on masters-degree level, so maybe it's because I wasn't "prepared" enough for this book that my take on it is so negative. The book does have it's moments, where things are understandable, but thats mainly if the stuff is easy. There is a lack of explenations throughout the entire book. It seems the author(s) view of "explenation" is the words "it is easy to see..." or "left as an exercise"....The proof of my feelings toward this book, can be seen on the teeth-marks that decorate the books cover. Im not writing this, because I need to vent steam...I passed the course on the first try, and it is now behind me, but I advice anyone faced with this book, to seek alternatives..this book is not a teaching book, it is a telling book.
A good textbook
I taught a couple of classes from the first edition of this textbook, and my students did fairly well.On the whole, they were able to understand the material and solve the homework problems.I certainly wouldn't mind teaching a class on this subject from the second edition as well, which I feel is a mild improvement over the first one.
First and foremost, a math book
I enjoyed this book because I enjoy formal mathematics.This is not an applications book, but a formal study of the mathematics that underly algorithmic design and analysis.I'm no math wizard, and I found this book readable (but I had to take it very slowly).The course for which I bought the book only covered chapters 1 - 4 and glossed over the final 3 chapters, but I intend to read the rest over the summer between semesters because it's so well and thoroughly written.This book is *dense*.I had to re-read everything three times before I absorbed it all, but ultimately I've understood everything I've read.The hardest parts to understand were the formal "proofs by induction" on the lengths of strings and sets - and, as any math student knows, you can gloss over the proofs on the first reading.A lot of the formal definitions (finite automata, pushdown automata, Turing machines, context-free grammars, etc.) baffled me on the first reading, but after reviewing the examples and working through a few problems, I could go back, re-read the formal definition and understand it.
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Subjects:  1. Computational complexity    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Mathematics    4. Computer Science    5. Computers    6. Computers - General Information    7. Discrete Mathematics    8. Formal languages    9. Logic    10. Logic, Symbolic and mathematic    11. Machine theory    12. Computers / Programming / Algorithms    13. Mathematical theory of computation    14. Probability & statistics   

Reviews (5)

To reiterate moussie99, Not so much
I've read the first half of this book twice now (once for a class, once to pass M.S. test).The book is terrible.There are virtually no examples to help you learn how to construct a Bayesian network.I'm serious.Virtually the only example is actually a homework question at the end of a chapter and the question is wrong!!! (there are dependcies in the table given for the joint distribution, but the acyclic graph shows them as independencies).
Elegant Discussion On Probabilistic Reasoning And Uncertainty
Pearl's "Probabilistic Reasoning in Intelligent Systems" is elegantly done seminal work on uncertainty, probabilistic reasoning and all things related inference. As the author says, "This book is a culmination of an investigation into the applicability of probabilistic methods to task requiring automated reasoning under uncertainty", it covers topics on all level i.e. basic ideas, technical and substantive discussions and advanced research. However, my impression of book's target audiences is researchers and readers with a advance understanding of these topics.
Not so much
I used this text in addtition to a few others for a course in probablistic reasoning (Bayes nets, etc.) and found that it was very unhelpful.The explanations were very poor and many parts were difficult to read.Also, there weren't very many examples and those that were provided were not very detailed.If you're looking for a text to learn probabilistic reasoning I would suggest trying a different book.Pearl's book could be useful as a 2nd or 3rd reference but not for the primary text.2 thumbs down. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence - General    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computers    4. General    5. Philosophy    6. Artificial intelligence    7. Computers / Artificial Intelligence   

Reviews (1)

Better than I expected
A good introduction to neural nets and their applicability tothe futures markets.Provides mathematical/theoretical basis fortechniques involved in neural net training, testing, chaos and touches on nonlinear systems in general.Also provides interesting benchmarks of several nets against several time series.Great bibliography. Includes Fortran source code for running trained nets but not for training a net. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Business / Economics / Finance    2. Business/Economics    3. Forecasting    4. Futures And Options Trading    5. Futures market    6. Investments & Securities - Futures    7. Mathematical Models In Economics    8. Mathematical models    9. Neural networks (Computer science)    10. Time-series analysis    11. Economic forecasting    12. Investment & securities    13. Neural networks   

Reviews (10)

A plethora of information
Confused about AI? Get this book! This is a nicely bound reference library with a large variety of techniques and algorithms. Lots of useful tips
It's hard to find good information about game programming and design.The trouble is that people working in the industry have an incentive to keep their techniques secret -- they don't want their competitors to learn them.The people who aren't in the industry can write about games but don't have the experience to back it up. The most complete, the most usefull resource...
This is the best book in my library.Read more

Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence - General    2. Computer Books And Software    3. Computer Games    4. Computer Programming    5. Computer graphics    6. Computers - Languages / Programming    7. Design    8. Games    9. Programming    10. Programming - General    11. Programming - Software Development    12. Video & Electronic - General    13. Artificial intelligence    14. Computers / Entertainment & Games / General   

Reviews (1)

More Mathematical than Technical
Defiantly more of a math book than a programming guide, but that was what I was expecting.This book explains how to use neural networks in the field of finance. It does so very logically and mathematically.You are shown how to apply neural networks to many different financial problems.But you are mostly left to yourself to actually implement the neural networks on a computer system.Some example source code is provided for MathCad, which is an expensive software package you can buy separately.
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Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business Mathematics    4. Business/Economics    5. Data processing    6. Decision making    7. Finance    8. Investments & Securities - General    9. Neural networks (Computer scie    10. Neural networks (Computer science)    11. Budgeting & financial management    12. Computers / Neural Networks   

Reviews (11)

Fresh perspective, creative explanations
I keep reading these sorts of books hoping that someday I'll actually arrive at some reasonable conception of relativity, the quantum world, and cosmology generally. I can't claim that I'm there just yet, but I'm confident I'm a step or two closer thanks to Seife.
Seife Strikes Again
Charles Seife's books do more than just aim for that,
If there ever was a Mother-of-All Theories....
In reviews thus far of "Decoding the Universe," both formal and informal, there is a pattern of confusion and disorientation about the book's real topic.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Science    2. Cosmology    3. Expert systems (Computer scien    4. Expert systems (Computer science)    5. Research & Methodology    6. Science    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Science / Methodology   

Editorial Review

Twenty years after it topped the bestseller charts, Douglas R. Hofstadter's Read more

Reviews (222)

AI's hardest problem...
Whenever I read a book in translation I often wonder if it's the translator I love or hate, or the author themselves.Literature in translation is essentially a complete re-writing of the book itself.Consider Lewis Carroll:How does one go about translating seemingly endless word play and words that are often made up?Now consider the fact that Alice in Wonderland had been translated into over 50 languages.If you could read all 50 languages, some would approximate your understanding of "Alice", and some would appear tangenital, or worse, dishonest to the original.
Transfiguration in Print
I read this book in 1980, and each chapter of it still stands out in my mind in glittering bas-relief against all I read before or have read since. What stands out the most, however, is that my thinking changed after reading this book. Everything since reading it has been inevitably processed through its filter, which has quite simply changed my life. Perhaps a first-reading today would not have an equal effect; in 1980 it was timely. Things we take for granted now were difficult to conceptualize then--the internet, for instance. But I'll leave it for contemporary readers to decide whether Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid is as eternal as the title claims. For me, the answer is a resounding yes. I can say without doubt that my life would have been different if I had not read it at that time.
Clever (occasionally to the exclusion of accuracy)
This book is a great way to expose yourself to new ideas, but, in the words of a previous reviewer, it was written by a passionate dilettante.
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Subjects:  1. 1685-1750    2. Artificial Intelligence    3. Artificial Intelligence - General    4. Bach, Johann Sebastian,    5. General    6. Logic    7. Metamathematics    8. Philosophy    9. Speculative Philosophy    10. Symmetry    11. Cognition & cognitive psychology    12. Philosophy of science   

Reviews (3)

Great book, the best book on visual lisp and autolisp
I have seen almoost all the books available on visual lisp and autolisp. I found this one the most useful. The accompanying software creates an elegant and more lisp-like abstraction on the top of visual lisp's VBA-like constructs. Very well designed api, and a thoroughly enjoyable book. Many thanks.
Visual Lisp : A guide to Artful Programming
The manual appears to be very good but without the use of the cd file containing all the functions, it's useless. The manual directs to run setup, which isn't there. Upon examination of the the four remaining files there is a list of the four files on cd, no setup and no apparrent way of doing it manually because there is no database of the functins. The manual also suggests downloading the latest version but the website is invalid. Trying to reach Phil Kreiker by email is also invalid. I tried Bill Krammer's, who wrote an intro to the book, websit and found an 800 # only got a lot of run-around. I see nearly a 50/50 split on the feedback on the book. ???Has anyone had this problem??.Amazon.com is still selling it, with the same errors. How good is this book if it is so poorly checked before publishing? VERY INFORMATIVE
THE MOST HELPFUL GUIDE TO VISUAL LISP I'VE SEEN SO FAR. A REAL MUST HAVE VOLUME. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Web Programming    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Lisp (Programming Language)    5. Programming - General    6. Programming Languages - LISP    7. Visual LISP (Computer program    8. Visual LISP (Computer program language)    9. Programming languages    10. Technology / Engineering / General   

Reviews (4)

Turtles for all
This book is a great guide to taking the somewhat difficult ideas explored in Mitchel Resnick's book "Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams" and implementing them with students.Adventures in modeling can be used alone but, for any teacher who wants to use this book in a computer class, it is helpful to read the other book first.The activities and challenges here are reasonable for students from college down though middle school.I know of one teacher who has even successfully used these activites with pre-teens.

Good book but not perfect...
The book is good overall but I felt they need to use more carefully thought out examples and not try to push an 'agenda'.
Great guide to modeling systems!
This is a great book for anyone interested in modeling dynamic systems. The authors provide wonderful background theory as a basis for building computer simulations. The simple step-by-step instructions guide you through the process of creating your own simulations using StarLogo. This book is an interesting, easily understandable beginner's manual and comes with all the software you need. It's a great way to teach yourself or other people how to program a simulation. I love the turtles! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Simulation    2. General    3. Literary Collections    4. Literature: Classics    5. Science    6. StarLogo (Computer program lan    7. StarLogo (Computer program language)    8. Computer modelling & simulation    9. Teaching of a specific subject    10. USA   

Reviews (4)

New to Field of Learning Theory
I am relatively new to statistical learning theory, though with a solid background in supporting theories and a Master's in Engineering. I found the text readable. I appreciate the historical perspective and the development of concepts by the author. I was generally able to grasp Vapnick's theories and explanations, though often after rereading passages many times.
worth reading
A good, albeit highly idiosyncratic, guide to Statistical Learning. The highly personal account of the theory is both the strong point and the drawback of the treatise. On one side, Vapnick never loses sight of the big picture, and gives illuminating insights and formulations of the "basic problems" (as he calls them), that are not found in any other book. The lack of proofs and the slightly erratic organization of the topic make for a brisk, enjoyable reading. On the minus side, the choice of the topics is very biased. In this respect, the book is a self-congratulatory tribute by the author to himself: it appears that the foundations of statistical learning were single-handedly laid by him and his collaborators. This is not really the case. Consistency of the Empircal Risk Measure is rather trivial from the viewpoint of a personal trained in asymptotic statistics, and interval estimators for finite data sets are the subject of much advanced statistical literature. Finally, SVMs and neural nets are just a part of the story, and probably not the most interesting. A very nice book to get ideas on support vector machines
This is a very readable book by an authority on this subject. The bookstarts with the statistical learning theory, pioneered by the author andco-worker's work, and gradually leads to the path of discovery of supportvector machines. An excellent and distinctive property of support vectormachines is that they are robust to small data perturbation and have goodgeneralization ability with function complexity being controlled by VCdimension. The treatment of nonlinear kernel classification and regressionis given for the first time in the first edition.The 2nd edition includessignificant updates including a separate chapter on support vectorregression as well as a section on logistic regression using the supportvector approach. Most computations involved in this book can be implementedusing a quadratic programming package. The connections of support vectormachines to traditional statisticalmodeling such as kernel density andregression and model selection are also discussed. Thus, this book will bean excellent starting point for learning support vector machines. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computational learning theory    2. Computer Science    3. Computers    4. Cybernetics    5. Information Theory    6. Mathematics    7. Probability & Statistics - General    8. Reasoning    9. Science/Mathematics    10. Machine learning    11. Mathematics / Statistics    12. Mathematics for scientists & engineers    13. Probability & statistics    14. Statistical Learning    15. Statistical Theory   

Subjects:  1. Allied Health Services - Medical Technology    2. Artificial Intelligence - General    3. Artificial intelligence    4. Biomedical Engineering    5. General    6. Medical    7. Medical / Nursing    8. Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation    9. Rehabilitation Therapy    10. Rehabilitation technology    11. Self-help devices for people w    12. Self-help devices for people with disabilities    13. Medicine: General Issues    14. Nursing    15. Physiotherapy    16. Rehabilitation    17. Technology / Engineering / Chemical & Biochemical   

Reviews (1)

The State of the Art as it Exists Today
Computer gaming continues to grow at a very rapid rate. In fact much of the development of the new higher speed chips and of course the high performance video cards are being driven by the needs of the gaming people.
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Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence - General    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer Graphics - Game Programming    4. Computer games    5. Computer graphics    6. Computers    7. Computers - General Information    8. Design    9. Programming    10. Programming - General    11. Video & Electronic - General    12. Computers / Entertainment & Games / General    13. Software engineering   

Reviews (2)

Comprehensive Book
Independent Component Analysis is a young and interesting topic that gained attention and still receiving more of it. Nice and detailed description of ICA
This is a nice and self-contained book on the subject of independent component analysis (ICA). The authors start with relevant mathematical and statistical background (in Part I) to prepare readers for the derivations of ICA (though seasoned researchers may want to skip the first part of this book). The authors discuss the motivation behind ICA and present several ways to derive ICA (since this subject has been approached by several communities). The authors also compare and discuss the pros and cons of these approaches. The authors discuss several applications using ICA in Part III.Read more

Subjects:  1. Adaptive Control    2. Advanced    3. Artificial Intelligence - General    4. Computers - General Information    5. Engineering - Mechanical    6. Multivariate analysis    7. Neural Networks    8. Principal components analysis    9. Probability & Statistics - Multivariate Analysis    10. Science/Mathematics    11. Systems Analysis    12. Technology    13. Communications engineering / telecommunications    14. Computer Hardware & Operating Systems    15. Electronics engineering    16. Medical equipment & techniques    17. PHYSICS    18. Science / Waves & Wave Mechanics