Human intelligence and its relationship with computer science explored in new book

One of the greatest remaining mysteries for science to unravel is the subject of a fascinating new book, authored by an expert from the University of Exeter.

Computer Science Professor Emeritus Derek Partridge explores the intricate nature of the human mind and its relationship with advances in research into Artificial Intelligence in the book, called "What Makes You Clever".

From a basis of 10 maxims, the book assesses specific aspects of computing advancement over recent decades, with particular focus on developments of computers exhibiting signs of intelligence.

The book is particularly pertinent, given recent claims that a computer program called 'Eugene Goostman', which simulates a 13-year-old Ukrainian boy, had passed the famous Turing Test for artificial intelligence by being, in a proportion of cases, indistinguishable from a human in conversation.

Professor Partridge said: "The book examines and reveals the difficulties that scientists grapple with in their efforts to understand human cleverness, as well as looking at the ways forward. "It engages the reader's expertise to probe human language, learning and forgetting, holistic systems and emergent phenomenon."

Professor Partridge was educated within the University of London, receiving a PhD in Computer Science from Imperial College in 1972. For the next fifteen years he pursued an academic career in Computer Science in universities abroad Kenya, Australia, but mostly in the USA.

In 1987 he returned to the UK to the Chair of Computer Science at the University of Exeter where he was department head from 1989 to 1994.