Beyond Zero and One

Can we build a robot that trips on acid? This is not a frivolous question, according to neuroscientist Andrew Smart. If we can’t, he argues, we haven’t really created artificial intelligence. In an exposition reminiscent of crossover works such as Gödel, Escher, Bach and Fermat’s Last Theorem, Andrew Smart weaves together Mangarevan binary numbers, the discovery of LSD, Leibniz, computer programming, and much more to connect the vast but largely forgotten world of psychedelic research with the resurgent field of AI and the attempt to build conscious robots. A book that draws on the history of mathematics, philosophy, and digital technology, Beyond Zero and One challenges fundamental assumptions underlying artificial intelligence. Is the human brain based on computation? Can information alone explain human consciousness and intelligence? Smart convincingly makes the case that true intelligence, and artificial intelligence, requires an appreciation of what is beyond the computational.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Chapter 0001—Basel, Switzerland
Chapter 2: Chapter 0010—Lund, Sweden
Chapter 3: Chapter 0011—A robot walks into a bar
Chapter 4: Chapter 0100—Between 0 and 1
Chapter 5: Chapter 0101—Dreaming in binary
Chapter 6: Chapter 0110—Hallucinating consciousness
Chapter 7: Chapter 0111—The computational stance
Chapter 8: Chapter 1000—Albert Hofmann’s problem child
Chapter 9: Chapter 1001—The Turing-Acid Test
Chapter 10: Chapter 1010—Chemical salvation?