The Emergent Mind: How Intelligence Arises in People and Machines

An eye-opening journey into the inner workings of human and artificial minds 

When we are trying to solve a problem, what happens? We find ourselves weighing arguments, or relying on intuition, then reaching a conscious decision about what to do. What is going on behind the scenes? 

In The Emergent Mind, Gaurav Suri and Jay McClelland show that our experience is the tip of an iceberg of brain activity that can be captured in an artificial neural network. Such networks—initially developed as models of ourselves—have become the engines of artificial neural intelligence. Suri and McClelland aren’t reducing mankind to mere machines. Rather, they are showing how a data-driven neural network can create thoughts, emotions, and ideas—a mind—whether in humans or computers.  

The Emergent Mind provides a fascinating account of how we reach decisions, why we change our minds, and how we are affected by context and experience. Ultimately, the book gives a new answer to one of our oldest questions: Not just how do minds work, but what does it mean to be a mind at all?

About the Author

Gaurav Suri is an associate professor of psychology at San Francisco State University. Jay McClelland is a professor of psychology and of computer science and linguistics at Stanford University. His publications have been cited over one hundred thousand times. The authors met in 2014. Both live in the San Francisco Bay area.