The Importance of Being Educable : A New Theory of Human Uniqueness / Leslie Valiant.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Valiant, Leslie, 1949- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Education--Philosophy.

Education.

Intellect--Philosophy.

Intellect.

Learning ability--Philosophy.

Learning ability.

Genre:

Informational works.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (273 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2024]

Summary:

No detailed description available for "The Importance of Being Educable".

In the age of AI, why our future depends on better understanding what makes us humanWe are at a crossroads in history. If we hope to share our planet successfully with one another and the AI systems we are creating, we must reflect on who we are, how we got here, and where we are heading. The Importance of Being Educable puts forward a provocative new exploration of the extraordinary facility of humans to absorb and apply knowledge. The remarkable "educability" of the human brain can be understood as an information processing ability. It sets our species apart, enables the civilization we have, and gives us the power and potential to set our planet on a steady course. Yet it comes hand in hand with an insidious weakness. While we can readily absorb entire systems of thought about worlds of experience beyond our own, we struggle to judge correctly what information we should trust.In this visionary book, Leslie Valiant argues that understanding the nature of our own educability is crucial to safeguarding our future. After breaking down how we process information to learn and apply knowledge, and drawing comparisons with other animals and AI systems, he explains why education should be humankind's central preoccupation.Will the unique capability that has been so foundational to our achievements and civilization continue to drive our progress, or will we fall victim to our vulnerabilities? If we want to play to our species' great strength and protect our collective future, we must better understand and prioritize the vital importance of being educable. This book provides a road map.

Contents:

Cover

Contents

Preface

1. The Civilization Enabler

Cleverness Is Not Enough

The Civilization Enabler

Knowledge Accumulation

A Computational Approach

Why Computation?

2. Where We Come From

Darwin's Challenge

The Brain

The Difficulty of Invention

Distinguishers, but Not Civilization Enablers

3. Where We Have Got To

Pervasiveness of Education

Education in the Large

Educability Is Different from IQ

4. Some Foundation Stones

Acquiring and Applying Belief Systems

Learning from Examples

Generalization

Large Memory

Symbolic Names

Teaching

Chaining

A Mind's Eye

The Rest of Cognition

5. Computation for Describing Natural Phenomena

Turing Computation

Probably Approximately Correct Learning

Robust Models of Computation

6. Integrative Learning

Putting Experiences Together

Augmenting Learning with Reasoning

Robust Logic

Knowledge as Rules

Tolerance of Inconsistency

Rules as Learned Classifiers

The Power of Learning

Chaining with Equivalences

Teaching by Example

Innate and Acquired Attributes

Imagination and Novelty

7. What Integrative Learning Does

Compounding Knowledge

Soundness of Chaining

World without Reason?

Modularity and Partial Information

Was Pavlov's Dog Right?

Exploiting Modularity

The Patchwork Tapestry

8. The Capability of Being Educable

The Crux

An Educable Learning System

More on Symbolic Names

Rules Acquired by Instruction

Scene Management

Belief Choice

9. Educability as a Model of Computation

Evolutionary Plausibility

The Model Is Explanatory

Teaching to Reason

Measures of Cognition

Universality

The Educability Model Has Robustness

10. Promoting Educability

Educability as an Individual Capacity

Educability of a Population

Measuring Educability

Long-Term Retention

11. Artificial Educability

Fear of Technology

The Imitation Game

Beyond the Imitation Game

AI

Large Language Models

Beyond Efficient Generalization

Integrative Learning Technology

Educable Technology

Natural versus Artificial

The Challenge of Teaching Materials

No Technological Singularity

12. Education: Some Questions

Education as a Right

The Study of Education

A Different Vantage Point

In the Classroom

Teaching Materials

Education and Propaganda

Propaganda Safety

Saturation

13. A Species Adrift

Human Sacrifice

At Sea

The Case of Isaac Newton

Belief Systems: Good and Bad

Science as a Belief System

The Scientific Revolution

Equality

Worldviews

Acknowledgments

Summary of Terminology

Notes

Index.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Valiant, Leslie The Importance of Being Educable

ISBN:

9780691230580

0691230587

OCLC:

1430343416