Machine Intelligence / Artificial Intelligence John von Neumann’s Final 1974

Artificial Intelligence: John von Neumann’s Final Inquiry into Machine Intelligence and the Human Brain

Author: John von Neumann; Machine Intelligence; Artificial Inteligence; AI; ; Mathematics
Title: Artificial Intelligence: John von Neumann’s Final Inquiry into Machine Intelligence and the Human Brain
Publication: 1974

Description:

First Edition

John von Neumann’s final inquiry into artificial computation and the physiology of thought, published posthumously from the manuscript prepared for his proposed Silliman Lectures at Yale. Invited to deliver the lectures in 1956, von Neumann planned a mathematical comparison of electronic computers and the nervous system, but illness prevented their presentation and left the text unfinished at his death in 1957. The resulting book examines processing speed, memory, digital and analog operations, coding, and logical reliability while asking how the brain achieves complex results with components slower and less exact than those of an electronic machine.

Von Neumann, John. The Computer and the Brain. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1974. First Edition, Eighth printing. The preface by Klara von Neumann recounts Yale’s invitation, her husband’s intention to compress the lectures into a single week, and the composition of the manuscript during a period of government service and declining health. The text is divided between “The Computer” and “The Brain,” with sections on mixed numerical procedures, precision, modern analog and digital machines, memory organs, the neuron, nerve impulses, stimulation criteria, memory within the nervous system, codes, and “The Language of the Brain Not the Language of Mathematics.”

Von Neumann approaches the nervous system through the architecture of the electronic machines he helped define, but repeatedly identifies the limits of direct comparison. He contrasts the high speed and precision of computing components with the slower operation of neurons, then considers how parallel activity, statistical organization, and mixed digital and analog processes might account for the brain’s reliability and capacity. His concluding distinction between mathematical notation and the brain’s own operational language anticipates later work in computational neuroscience, neural networks, and theories of distributed information processing. Octavo, xiv, 82 pages; gray cloth binding measuring 5.5 x 8 x .25 inches; issued here without dust jacket. No ownership marks or annotations; binding intact with minor exterior wear.

Seller ID: 23649

Subject: American History by State, Literature & Literary Archives, Science, Medicine & Technology

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