Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Table of Contents - 2003 - Volume 26, Issue 05  


Short Communication

Newell's program, like Hilbert's, is dead; let's move on

Yingrui Yang a1 and Selmer Bringsjord a2
a1 Department of Cognitive Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180 yangyri@rpi.edu
a2 Department of Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180 selmer@rpi.edu http://www.rpi.edu/~brings

Abstract

We draw an analogy between Hilbert's program (HP) for mathematics and Newell's program (NP) for cognitive modeling. The analogy reveals that NP, like HP before it, is fundamentally flawed. The only alternative is a program anchored by an admission that cognition is more than computation.