What Computers Still Can't Do: A Critique of Artificial Reason

The 1992 update to Dreyfus's 1972 original, written twenty years later with the critique deepened rather than softened. Dreyfus adds new introductions addressing connectionism, neural networks, and the failures of expert systems, while the core phenomenological argument remains intact: human intelligence is embodied, situated, and fundamentally unlike formal symbol manipulation. The book documents how AI's grand promises collapsed into the first winter — and how the field responded by shifting vocabulary rather than assumptions. With large language models reopening the same questions about machine understanding, the sequel is as relevant as the first edition. Dreyfus's philosophical precision makes it an indispensable counterweight to cycles of hype.