Apprentices of Wonder: Inside the Neural Network Revolution

"If you want to understand the latest scientific thinking about the relations between mind and brain, meet Allman's Apprentices of Wonder."—Howard Gardner, author of The Mind's New Science: A History of Cognitive Revolution

In the vein of The Soul of a New Machine comes this accessible book on the scientists who are creating startling theories of how the mind works as they forge a kind of artificial intelligence called neural networks—or, the first thinking machines.

"This snappy introduction to the possibilities of the new sciences of connectionism will inform readers why mahy brain scientists are excited—and why the skeptics remain to be persuaded."—Pamela McCorduck, coauthor, with Mitchell Feigenbaum, of The Fifth Generation and author of Machines Who Think and The Universal Machine

In the traditional view, all thinking involves the manipulation of symbols. But according to the new "connectionist" theory of mind, human thought arises from the brain's architecture and is generated by the complex interactions of billions of neurons interlinked in neural nets. These vast brain cell networks seemingly possess the ability to change their own connections; experience (not genes) is the engineer that effects the rewiring. Allman, a freelance journalist, offers an exciting, remarkably lucid tour through the labyrinth of this emerging science. Aided by everyday examples and diagrams that lighten the presentation, he ponders how we acquire language and store memories, and discusses machines capable of reading or grasping patterns. He also looks at blueprints for optical computers, in which light is the current that shuttles information.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.