Gary Drescher

Who is Gary Drescher?

Gary L. Drescher is a scientist in the field of artificial intelligence, author of the book Made-Up Minds: A Constructivist Approach to Artificial Intelligence.

His book describes a theory of how a computer program might be implemented to learn and use new concepts that have not been programmed into it. It introduces the Schema Mechanism, a general learning and concept-building mechanism inspired by Jean Piaget's account of human cognitive development.

The Schema Mechanism is intended to replicate key aspects of cognitive development during infancy. It takes Piaget's theory of human development as source of inspiration for an artificial learning mechanism; and it extends and tests Piaget's theory by seeing whether a specific mechanism that works according to Piagetian themes actually exhibits Piagetian abilities.

He was a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University, which is directed by the American philosopher Daniel Dennett. As a result of his studies there, he has written a book, Good and Real: Demystifying Paradoxes from Physics to Ethics, in which he defends a rigorously mechanistic materialism.