This page collects the things I found really insightful in Martin's Clean Code. By "insightful," I mean things I didn't already practice as a programmer with a couple years of experience. Thus, I've skipped over tips like "don't be afraid of long variable names" in favor of things like "functions should act at one level … Continue reading Highlights from Robert C. Martin’s Clean Code
Here are my highlights from Andre Alexandrescu's Modern C++ Design: Generic Programming and Design Patterns Applied. Policy-Based Class Design Overview: Policy-based class design fosters assembling a class with complex behavoir out of many little classes (called policies), each of which takes care of only one behavioral or structural aspect. The challenge in any design is … Continue reading Notes from Andre Alexandrescu’s Modern C++ Design
This is an abstract of a chapter from Rosalind W. Picard's book HAL's Legacy. The piece is available on the MIT Press site here (note that there are 9 sections to the chapter). Abstract Returning repeatedly to the illustrative example of HAL 9000, Picard examines the plausibility and consequence of making computers understand and even … Continue reading Does HAL Cry Digital Tears? Emotion and Computers – Rosalind Picard
This is an abstract of Marvin Minsky's Frame System Theory paper, a classic paper in defining the problem space for an intelligent artifact. The paper itself is a pretty easy read, and it sheds some light on the sort of problem that humans are really good at doing without even realizing they're good at it. … Continue reading Minsky’s Frame System Theory
This is an abstract of Edward Feigenbaum's paper "Some Challenges and Grand Challenges for Computational Intelligence," which presents a "grand vision" for the future of artificial intelligence research. You can read Feigenbaum's own summary of the paper here. Abstract A number of challenges may guide our research in artificial intelligence better than the “multidimensional” Turing … Continue reading Some Challenges and Grand Challenges for Computational Intelligence – Edward Feigenbaum
This is an abstract of the first chapter of John Haugeland's Mind Design II, an edited collection of important works in cognitive science. It provides an overview of the framework used by cognitive scientists and, in particular, those interested in designing intelligent artifacts. Abstract The goal of “mind design” is to understand thinking and intelligence … Continue reading Mind Design – John Haugeland
This is an abstract of Alan M. Turing's "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" paper, which outlines what is, in many circles, the accepted standard test to determine if a machine is intelligent. You can read the original paper on the Hugh Loebner's site, here. It's a straightforward read, even if you aren't a computer scientist. I … Continue reading Computing Machinery and Intelligence – Alan Turing
