Read of the Week (Feb 15 to Feb 21): 'The Laws Of Thought' by Tom Griffiths

Everyone has a basic understanding of how the physical world works. We learn about physics and chemistry in school, letting us explain the world around us in terms of concepts like force, acceleration, and gravity — the Laws of Nature. But we don’t have the same fluency with concepts needed to understand the world inside us — the Laws of Thought. While the story of how mathematics has been used to reveal the mysteries of the universe is familiar, the story of how it has been used to study the mind is not.

There is no one better to tell that story than Tom Griffiths, the head of Princeton’s AI Lab and a renowned expert in the field of cognitive science. In this groundbreaking book, he explains the three major approaches to formalising thought–rules and symbols, neural networks, and probability and statistics, introducing each idea through the stories of the people behind it. As informed conversations about thought, language, and learning become ever more pressing in the age of AI, The Laws of Thought is an essential read for anyone interested in the future of technology.

Tom Griffiths is the Henry R Luce Professor of Information Technology, Consciousness and Culture in the Departments of Psychology and Computer Science at Princeton University.