Society of Mind
Society of Mind by Marvin Minskyby Marvin Minsky
Shares rank 12 of 50 popular science books by recommenders
Short one-page essays on intelligence as an emergent property of many simple agents, recommended as AI fundamentals reading. One reader says it has aged well to about 80%.
Short one-page essays on intelligence as an emergent property of many simple agents, recommended as AI fundamentals reading. One reader says it has aged well to about 80%.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
Other popular science books people recommend
The four most recommended other popular science books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gödel, Escher, Bachby Douglas Hofstadter | 47 | 10 | 82% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Thinking, Fast and Slowby Daniel Kahneman | 17 | 13 | 57% | 9 | — | — |
| Thinking in Systemsby Donella Meadows | 17 | 0 | 100% | 8 | — | Approved |
| The Selfish Geneby Richard Dawkins | 14 | 5 | 74% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Society of Mindby Marvin MinskyThis page | 6 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
5 of the 6 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“which has aged well to about 80%”
“I think that this belief is what's needed to guide us forward towards AGI.”
“essentially every chapter/mini-essay is one page, a form which he argued is a good fit for our mental processes”
“Go back to the fundamentals and read society of mind”
“The full theory. Intelligence as emergent property of many simple agents.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.