Models in the Mind

A History of (Mainly) Western Thinking

By: Tor Hansen

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Paperback | 30 June 2025

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23.5 x 15.6 x 1.6

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Can machines really think-or do they just imitate the act convincingly?

Alan Turing's famous test of artificial intelligence asked a deceptively simple question: if a machine can hold a conversation indistinguishable from a human, does that make it intelligent?

For decades, the answer was unnecessary-machines couldn't pass the test. But today's large language models, like ChatGPT, appear to do just that: fluently, flawlessly, and insistently. And yet, they still claim they are not conscious, not sentient, not "real" minds.

Models in the Mind explores the deep history of how humans have understood thinking, intelligence, and the soul-from animist myths to mechanical metaphors, from amoebae to neural networks. It traces our evolving models of the mind through philosophy, psychology, science, and artificial intelligence.

Accessible yet intellectually rigorous, this book asks enduring questions:

What do we mean by "mind"?
Can intelligence be reduced to function?
What happens when our models of thinking outpace our understanding?
And what if the models we build start to shape us in return?

This is a sweeping, interdisciplinary journey through the ideas that have shaped human self-understanding-and the new models that might reshape it again.

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