Author：Judea Pearl，Dana Mackenzie

Paperback: 432 pages

Publisher: Penguin; 2 edition (2 May 2019)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0141982411

ISBN-13: 978-0141982410

Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 2.4 x 19.8 cm

图灵奖得主、人工智能先驱、贝叶斯网络之父Judea Pearl发表的著作The Book of Why，一经推出就引起广泛关注，其中提出了和当前主流人工智能理论不同的观点，认为当前的AI深陷于概率关联的泥潭，而忽略了因果关系的研究。

身为 UCLA 计算机科学系的教授，Judea Pearl曾两次居于科学革命的中心：一次是在 20 世纪 80 年代，他为人工智能引入了一套新的工具，叫贝叶斯网络。二次革命，鉴于贝叶斯网络在计算上的优势，Pearl意识到简单的图模型和概率论（正如贝叶斯网络中的那样）也能用于因果关系的推理。这一发现为人工智能的发展奠定了另一个基础，但意义远非如此，这一能验证因果关系的、条理性的数学方法，几乎已经被所有科学和社会科学领域采用。

这次的著作就是为了向大众解释，对于人工智能的理解，不仅仅是局限于使机器建立关联概念，更重要的是发展因果逻辑推理的能力，从而让机器真正拥有思考力，甚至实现自由意志。

'Wonderful ... Illuminating ... Fun to read' Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast and Slow

A pioneer of artificial intelligence shows how the study of causality revolutionized science and the world

'Correlation does not imply causation.' This mantra was invoked by scientists for decades in order to avoid taking positions as to whether one thing caused another, such as smoking and cancer and carbon dioxide and global warming. But today, that taboo is dead. The causal revolution, sparked by world-renowned computer scientist Judea Pearl and his colleagues, has cut through a century of confusion and placed cause and effect on a firm scientific basis. Now, Pearl and science journalist Dana Mackenzie explain causal thinking to general readers for the first time, showing how it allows us to explore the world that is and the worlds that could have been. It is the essence of human and artificial intelligence. And just as Pearl's discoveries have enabled machines to think better, The Book of Why explains how we can think better.

朱迪亚·珀尔（Judea Pearl），生于1936年9月4日，以色列裔美国计算机科学家和哲学家，因其人工智能概率方法的杰出成绩和贝叶斯网络（Bayesian network，又称信念网络Belief Network）的研发而知名，最早将因果建模数学化应用到科学的人之一。2011年，他因通过概率和因果推理的算法研发在人工智能取得的杰出贡献而获得计算机科学最高荣誉图灵奖（Turing Award）。朱迪亚·珀尔将图灵奖的大部分奖金捐赠用于支持Daniel Pearl基金会项目，另一部分用于促进在因果推理的统计教育。

朱迪亚·珀尔被加州大学洛杉矶分校（UCLA）计算机科学教授理查德·科夫称为“人工智能领域的巨人之一”。按照计算机协会（ACM，一个世界性的电脑从业员专业组织）的说法，朱迪亚·珀尔对因果关系的研究“彻底改变了对统计学、心理学、医学和社会科学中因果关系的理解”。

另外， 他还获得了Rumelhart奖（鲁姆哈特奖，国际认知科学领域最高学术荣誉），Benjamin Franklin奖章（美国富兰克林学会的最高荣誉奖）和Lakatos奖（拉卡托斯奖，科学哲学界最高奖项）。他还是Daniel Pearl基金会的创始人和总裁。

Judea Pearl is a world-renowned Israeli-American computer scientist and philosopher, known for his world-leading work in AI and the development of Bayesian networks, as well as his theory of causal and counterfactual inference. In 2011, he won the most prestigious award in computer science, the Alan Turing Award. He has also received the Rumelhart Prize (Cognitive Science Society), the Benjamin Franklin Medal (Franklin Institute) and the Lakatos Award (London School of Economics), and he is the founder and president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation. 

Dana Mackenzie是一位屡获殊荣的科学作家、科学家、数学家，也是The Big Splat, or How Our Moon Came to Be（2003）和The Universe in Zero Words（2012）的作者。前一本书被Booklist（美国图书协会）列为编辑精选，后者是2017 意大利Premio Asimov（Asimov Prize）的入围决赛书目。 此外，Dana Mackenzie还撰写了几卷What’s Happening in the Mathematical Sciences，这是美国数学学会出版的其中一个系列。

Dana Mackenzie is an award-winning science writer and the author of The Big Splat, or How Our Moon Came to Be(2003) and The Universe in Zero Words (2012). The former book was named an Editor’s Choice by Booklist, and the latter was a finalist for the 2017 Premio Asimov (Asimov Prize) in Italy. In addition, Mackenzie has written several volumes of What’s Happening in the Mathematical Sciences, an ongoing series published by the American Mathematical Society. He lives in Santa Cruz, California.

Dana Mackenzie has written for such magazines as Science, New Scientist, and Discover.