Models of My Life

Herbert A Simon

ISBN 10: 0465046401 / ISBN 13: 9780465046409

Published by Basic Books April 1991, 1991

About this Item

SIGNED AND DATED BY SIMON ON THE FFEP. FIRST PRINTING. used hardcover in a dust jacket. jacket is slightly worn about the edges, but with no tears and not price clipped. pages and binding are clean, straight and tight. there are no marks to the text or other serious flaws.

Seller Inventory # 1516246

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Models of My Life
• Publisher: Basic Books April 1991
• Publication Date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0465046401
• ISBN 13: 9780465046409
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Printing: 1st Edition
• Condition: SIGNED / VG
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Signed: Signed By Author
• Seller catalogs:
  • computer

About this title

Synopsis

The author reviews his life as a Nobel laureate in economics and his role as the father of artificial intelligence and asks himself how his life as a scientist helps explain his own behavior

Reviews

Simon observes himself as an object for scientific inquiry in this refreshingly innovative autobiography. Principal architect of the field of artificial intelligence, this polymath has applied the metaphor of a decision-making maze to human cognition, management science, economics and politics--winning a Nobel Prize in 1978. Instead of a dry, rationalist exercise, this traipse through the branching paths of his personal labyrinth turns out to be a quirky, soul-baring self-analysis. In early chapters on his introspective Milwaukee childhood, he refers to himself in the third person as "the boy." He is equally objective in discussing his 1930s flirtation with political radicalism, his half-century-long marriage and the politics of scientific infighting. This is a disarming self-portrait by a gifted writer who believes that the real self is an illusion and that one's life need not have a unifying thread. Photos.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Simon is a veritable Renaissance man: considered the father of artificial intelligence, he also contributed to the theory of organizational behavior and was the first social scientist to be admitted to the National Academy of Science. In this extensive and entertaining autobiography, he writes smoothly and provocatively on a range of topics from his early youth to his years at UC Berkeley, Illinois, and, finally Carnegie Mellon. He is surprisingly candid in discussing how he "prepared" for his Nobel prize in economics, and his descriptions of political and personal in-fighting in academe document an aspect often not shown. Simon has participated in some of the most wide-ranging intellectual developments of this century, and his autobiography surely will interest many readers.
- Hilary D. Burton, Lawrence Livermore National Lab., Livermore, Cal.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.