The Computer and the Brain (The Silliman Memorial Lectures Series)
Whether they think that artificial intelligence is impossible or  inevitable, most people have highly polarized views on it. John von Neumann,  genius, mathematician, and inventor of the nearly ubiquitous computer  architecture that bears his name, blazed trails for both camps inThe  Computer and the Brain. This short book, which was written originally for  Yale's Silliman lectures, but published posthumously, summarizes his views on  machine and biological intelligence with unprecedented clarity and precision.  His understanding of neuroscience was that of a brilliant and strongly motivated  amateur at the end of the 1950s--good enough to take on the problem, but by no  means matching his comprehension of the machines to which he had devoted much of  his professional life. Still, his take on intracranial computation is stunningly  prescient--he looks beyond the then-fashionable digital metaphors to suggest a  semi-analog strategy that uses parallel processing to make up for its deficiency  in speed. Prominent neuroscientific thinkers Paul M. Churchland and Patricia S.  Churchland provide a brief, enlightening foreword to this second edition,  placing the author's thinking in context and grounding the reader in the  scientific milieu that gave rise toThe Computer and the Brain. Although  his computer architecture slowly is growing obsolete, von Neumann has given us a  more lasting legacy in his thinking about thinking.--Rob Lightner--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.