Updated: 2007-01-25
"Cognitive science is the study of intelligence and intelligent systems, with particular reference to intelligent behavior as computation. .... Cognitive science can be approached in several ways. .... The principal contributing disciplines are experimental and cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence (within computer science), linguistics, philosophy (especially logic and epistemology), neuroscience and some others (anthropology, economics, and social psychology ...)" [Simon, H. A., & Kaplan, C. A. (1989). Foundations of cognitive science. In M. Posner (Ed.), Foundations of Cognitive Science [pp. 1-47]. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press].
Undergraduate cognitive science stands at the threshold of more permanent national organization, a solid foundation of publicly available instructional models and materials, and levels of undergraduate interest and enrollment that are sustainable in the long term. Stronger agreement at the national level about the core content of the undergraduate major is needed to move the field over this threshold. In addition, a new round of funding from government and private foundations will be required. The funding will depend on a stronger recognition among cognitive scientists at a national level about what is needed and on the initiative of individuals and groups in making proposals for the development of curriculum and course materials. The highest priority should be on proposals to produce instructional materials that are widely usable. The following areas of curricular experimentation and development are particularly worthy of support:
Alan Turing's famous Universal Turing Machine was the first recorded concept of using a programmable machine to perform well defined mathematical processes. In a way, it can be considered the conceptual father of all "computers" as we know them. Turing machines have some interesting properties, including the theoretical property of being able to simulate any system that can be described mathematically, given enough memory. This concept has been often applied to mathematically 'prove' that every machine can be emulated. Unfortunately, most of the emulators are named very similarly, so it can be difficult differentiating them.
