The Laws of Thought: The Thrilling Quest for a Mathematical Theory of the Mind, From the Head of Princeton's AI Lab

「任何對人類思考方式感到好奇的人，都必讀此書。」——查爾斯·杜希格（Charles Duhigg），《習慣的力量》與《超強溝通者》作者

出自《演算法圖鑑》（Algorithms to Live By）合著者之手，本書探索了三百年前至今，人類試圖利用數學來描述思維方式的歷程——從最初的起源，到現代人工智慧系統背後的思想，以及這些系統與人類心智至今仍存在的差異。

每個人對物理世界的運作都有基本的了解。我們在學校學習物理和化學，讓我們能以力、加速度、引力等概念——即「自然法則」——來解釋周遭的世界。然而，對於理解我們內在世界所需的概念——即「思考法則」（The Laws of Thought），我們卻缺乏同樣的流暢度。儘管利用數學揭示宇宙奧秘的故事已廣為人知，但利用數學來研究心智的故事卻鮮為人知。

沒有人比普林斯頓大學人工智慧實驗室負責人、認知科學領域的知名專家湯姆·葛瑞菲斯（Tom Griffiths）更適合講述這個故事。在這本具開創性的著作中，他解釋了將思考形式化的三大主要路徑：規則與符號、神經網絡，以及機率與統計，並透過背後創造者的故事來介紹每個觀點。隨著在 AI 時代中，關於思考、語言與學習的深度對話變得日益緊迫，《思考法則》是所有對科技未來感興趣人士的必讀之作。

‘A must-read for anyone curious about how we think.’ Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit and Supercommunicators

From the coauthor of Algorithms to Live By, an exploration of the quest to use mathematics to describe the ways we think, from its origins three hundred years ago to the ideas behind modern AI systems and the ways in which they still differ from human minds.

Everyone has a basic understanding of how the physical world works. We learn about physics and chemistry in school, letting us explain the world around us in terms of concepts like force, acceleration, and gravity–the Laws of Nature. But we don't have the same fluency with concepts needed to understand the world inside us–the Laws of Thought. While the story of how mathematics has been used to reveal the mysteries of the universe is familiar, the story of how it has been used to study the mind is not.

There is no one better to tell that story than Tom Griffiths, the head of Princeton's AI Lab and a renowned expert in the field of cognitive science. In this groundbreaking book, he explains the three major approaches to formalizing thought–rules and symbols, neural networks, and probability and statistics–introducing each idea through the stories of the people behind it. As informed conversations about thought, language, and learning become ever more pressing in the age of AI, The Laws of Thought is an essential read for anyone interested in the future of technology.