The Sciences of the Artificial (3/e), Herbert A. Simon, MIT, 1996.
The Tree of Knowledge, Humberto R. Maturana and Francisco J. Varela, Shambhala, 1992.
These books represent two very different approaches to understanding the nature of intelligence.
Simon comes from (or perhaps better to say “defined” or “helped create”) the “AI as logic” school. His book brings in a wide range of areas to help elucidate thinking: simulations, economic systems, and systems thinking.
Maturana and Varela come from the “AI as biology” school. They use biological models to explore behavior, cognition, and culture. They explore how non-representational models can generate behavior.
Both books are deep, sometimes deeper than I could properly follow. I was left with the sense that Maturana and Varela are closer to answers but the answers they have will be more complex and less satisfying.
(Reviewed Apr., ’09)