A society is a self-reproducing grouping of individuals occupying a particular territory, which may have its own distinctive culture and institutions. As culture is generally considered unique to humans, the terms "society" and "human society" have the same meaning. "Society," may refer to a particular people, such as the Nuer, to a nation state, such as Austria, or to a broader cultural group, such as Western society.

Origin and usage

---

The English word society emerged in the 15th century and is derived from the French société. The French word, in turn, had its origin in the Latin societas, a "friendly association with others," from socius meaning "companion, associate, comrade or business partner." Thus the meaning of society is closely related to what is considered to be social. Implicit in the meaning of society is that its members share some mutual concern or interest, a common objective or common characteristics. As such, society is often used to mean the collective citizenry of a country as directed through national institutions concerned with civic welfare.

More on [ Society ]

MIT News: Robotics / artificial intelligence

Model helps computers sort data more like humans
Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500
In an advance that may impact the field of artificial intelligence, a new model developed at MIT can help computers recognize patterns the same way that humans do. The model can analyze a set of data and figure out which type of organizational structure best fits it.
MIT class asks: Fly me to the moon?
Wed, 21 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500
An MIT graduate class, aimed at figuring out whether MIT could, or should, mount an entry into the $20-million Google Lunar X-Prize competition announced last fall, has arrived at the bottom line: Yes, we can (technically)!
Beaver-like robots face off in annual MIT contest
Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Robots designed to toss pool-noodle trees into a river of ping-pong balls ruled over competitors focused on rescuing fuzzy toy beavers in this year's 2.007 contest, "Da (yes) MIT, or Save the Baby Beavers," held on Thursday, May 8, at MIT.
Meet Nexi, the Media Lab's latest robot star
Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500
A new experimental robot from the MIT Media Lab can slant its eyebrows in anger, or raise them in surprise, and show a wide assortment of facial expressions to communicate with people in human-centric terms.
Brains informing computers, and vice versa
Sat, 16 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500
After many years, Tomaso Poggio's two parallel lines of research--one aimed at using computers to understand how the brain works, the other at improving the abilities of computers to "think"--have begun to converge.
MIT students design graduate student development program
Sat, 16 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500
An MIT PhD candidate in electrical engineering and computer science will describe a novel professional development program for graduate students and its impact at MIT at the annual meeting of the AAAS in Boston.

Latest Issue of Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence

Introduction to the special issue on: pluralism and the future of cognitive science
Dale, Rick
The possibility of a pluralist cognitive science
Dale, Rick
On the nature of minds, or: truth and consequences
Edelman, Shimon

Subscribe to Artificial_Intelligence RSS feed