Six essays by artificial intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky on how education can foster inventiveness, paired with commentary by Minsky's former colleagues and students.
Marvin Minsky was a pioneering researcher in artificial intelligence whose work led to both theoretical and practical advances. His work was motivated not only by technological advancement but also by the desire to understand the workings of our own minds. Minsky's insights about the mind provide fresh perspectives on education and how children learn. This book collects for the first time six essays by Minsky on children, learning, and the potential of computers in school to enrich children's development. In these essays Minsky discusses the shortcomings of conventional education (particularly in mathematics) and considers alternative approaches; reflects on the role of mentors; describes higher-level strategies for thinking across domains; and suggests projects for children to pursue. Each essay is paired with commentary by one of Minsky's former colleagues or students, which identifies Minsky's key ideas and connects his writings to current research. Minsky once observed that in traditional teaching, “instead of promoting inventiveness, we focus on preventing mistakes.” These essays offer Minsky's unique insights into how education can foster inventiveness.
Commentary by Hal Abelson, Walter Bender, Alan Kay, Margaret Minsky, Brian Silverman, Gary Stager, Mike Travers, Patrick Henry Winston

Inventive Minds: Marvin Minsky on Education (Mit Press)

Science & Math

Minsky, Marvin

Evolution

The MIT Press

This book collects a group of experiments directed toward making intelligent machines. Each of the programs described here demonstrates some aspect of behavior that anyone would agree require some intelligence, and each program solves its own kinds of problems. These include resolving ambiguities in word meanings, finding analogies between things, making logical and nonlogical inferences, resolving inconsistencies in information, engaging in coherent discourse with a person, and building internal models for representation of newly acquired information. Each of the programs has serious limitations, but the chapter authors provide clear perspectives for viewing both the achievements and limitations of their programs. But what is much more important than what these particular programs achieve are the methods they use to achieve what they do.

Semantic Information Processing

Reference

MIT Press]

The first systematic study of parallelism in computation by two pioneers in the field.

Perceptrons, Reissue of the 1988 Expanded Edition with a new foreword by Léon Bottou: An Introduction to Computational Geometry (Mit Press)

Computers & Technology

Papert, Seymour A.

Computer Science

Perceptrons - the first systematic study of parallelism in computation - has remained a classical work on threshold automata networks for nearly two decades. It marked a historical turn in artificial intelligence, and it is required reading for anyone who wants to understand the connectionist counterrevolution that is going on today. Artificial-intelligence research, which for a time concentrated on the programming of ton Neumann computers, is swinging back to the idea that intelligence might emerge from the activity of networks of neuronlike entities. Minsky and Papert's book was the first example of a mathematical analysis carried far enough to show the exact limitations of a class of computing machines that could seriously be considered as models of the brain. Now the new developments in mathematical tools, the recent interest of physicists in the theory of disordered matter, the new insights into and psychological models of how the brain works, and the evolution of fast computers that can simulate networks of automata have given Perceptrons new importance.Witnessing the swing of the intellectual pendulum, Minsky and Papert have added a new chapter in which they discuss the current state of parallel computers, review developments since the appearance of the 1972 edition, and identify new research directions related to connectionism. They note a central theoretical challenge facing connectionism: the challenge to reach a deeper understanding of how "objects" or "agents" with individuality can emerge in a network. Progress in this area would link connectionism with what the authors have called "society theories of mind." Marvin L. Minsky is Donner Professor of Science in M.I.T.'s Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. Seymour A. Papert is Professor of Media Technology at M.I.T. .

Perceptrons: An Introduction to Computational Geometry, Expanded Edition

Looks at the prospects for robots used in heavy industry, as house servants and aids for the handicapped, and speculates on what life with androids will be like

Robotics: The First Authoritative Report from the Ultimate High-Tech Frontier

DOUBLEDAY

After gunman storm his high-security laboratory and put a bullet in his head, Brian Delaney reconstructs himself with the nerve reprogramming techniques that he invented and sets out to regain the scientific knowledge he has lost. Reprint.

The Turing Option (Questar Science Fiction)

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Harrison. Harry

Science Fiction

Grand Central Publishing

The world's foremost authority on artificial intelligence is shot by terrorists, and it is up to a brilliant surgeon to reconstruct the scientist's brain using the research he pioneered. 35,000 first printing. $35,000 ad/promo.

The Turing Option: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

United States

GRAND CENTRAL PUB.

The Society of Mind

An authority on artificial intelligence introduces a theory that explores the workings of the human mind and the mysteries of thought

Self-Help

Personal Transformation

Simon&Schuster

Marvin Minsky -- one of the fathers of computer science and cofounder of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT -- gives a revolutionary answer to the age-old question: "How does the mind work?" Minsky brilliantly portrays the mind as a "society" of tiny components that are themselves mindless. Mirroring his theory, Minsky boldly casts The Society of Mind as an intellectual puzzle whose pieces are assembled along the way. Each chapter -- on a self-contained page -- corresponds to a piece in the puzzle. As the pages turn, a unified theory of the mind emerges, like a mosaic. Ingenious, amusing, and easy to read, The Society of Mind is an adventure in imagination.

A leading contributor to artificial intelligence offers insight into the numerous ways in which the mind works to demonstrate how emotions and feelings are just different ways of thinking, in an account that poses controversial ideas about the potential for designing machines that are capable of thinking like humans. By the author of The Society of Mind.

The Emotion Machine: Commonsense Thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Human Mind

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Minsky, Marvin. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Minsky, Marvin

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Minsky, Marvin. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Inventive Minds: Marvin Minsky on Education (Mit Press)

Semantic Information Processing

Perceptrons, Reissue of the 1988 Expanded Edition with a new foreword by Léon Bottou: An Introduction to Computational Geometry (Mit Press)

Perceptrons: An Introduction to Computational Geometry, Expanded Edition

Robotics: The First Authoritative Report from the Ultimate High-Tech Frontier

The Turing Option (Questar Science Fiction)

The Turing Option: A Novel

The Society of Mind

The Society of Mind

The Emotion Machine: Commonsense Thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Human Mind