The Computer and the Brain

The Computer and the Brain is an unfinished book by the greatest mathematicians of the twentieth century, John von Neumann, begun shortly before his death and first published in 1958. It explores the analogies between computing machines and the living human brain. "The task of constructing a general and logical theory of automata was too large for von Neumann to carry out in detail with the final few years of his career. Instead, he attempted to provide a programmatic framework for the future development of the general theory and limited himself to developing specific aspects, including the logical theory of automata, the statistical theory of automata, the theory of complexity and self-replication, and the comparison of the computer and the brain." (Aspray 1958, 133-34). Minsky 1963, 506. First printing, gray cloth boards, black ink lettering; pictorial DJ, with spine darkening. Ghosting from newspaper clipping between pages 10,11, as new otherwise. Small 8vo. 82pp plus np history of the lecture series (4pp). 5½" - 8½".…