| Edition |
Third edition / foreword by Ray Kurzweil. |
| Description |
1 online resource (li, 83 pages). |
| Series |
Silliman Memorial Lectures |
|
Mrs. Hepsa Ely Silliman memorial lectures.
|
| Note |
Previous edition: 2000. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references. |
| Note |
Print version record. |
| Summary |
In this classic work, one of the greatest mathematicians of the twentieth century explores the analogies between computing machines and the living human brain. John von Neumann, whose many contributions to science, mathematics, and engineering include the basic organizational framework at the heart of today's computers, concludes that the brain operates both digitally and analogically, but also has its own peculiar statistical language.In his foreword to this new edition, Ray Kurzweil, a futurist famous in part for his own reflections on the relationship between technology and intelligence, places von Neumann’s work in a historical context and shows how it remains relevant today. |
| Contents |
PART 1 THE COMPUTER -- The Analog Procedure -- The Conventional Basic Operations -- Unusual Basic Operations -- The Digital Procedure -- Markers, Their Combinations and Embodiments -- Digital Machine Types and Their Basic Components -- Parallel and Serial Schemes -- The Conventional Basic Operations -- Logical Control -- Plugged Control -- Logical Tape Control -- The Principle of Only One Organ for Each Basic Operation. |
|
The Consequent Need for a Special Memory Organ -- Control by Control Sequence Points -- Memory-Stored Control -- Modus Operandi of the Memory-Stored Control -- Mixed Forms of Control -- Mixed Numerical Procedures -- Mixed Representations of Numbers. Machines Built on This Basis -- Precision -- Reasons for the High (Digital) Precision Requirements -- Characteristics of Modern Analog Machines -- Characteristics of Modern Digital Machines -- Active Components; Questions of Speed -- Number of Active Components: Required. |
|
Memory Organs. Access Times: and Memory Capacities -- Memory Registers Built from Active Organs -- The Hierarchic Principle for Memory Organs -- Memory Components; Questions: of Access -- Complexities of the Concept of Access Time -- The Principle of Direct Addressing -- PART 2 THE BRAIN -- Simplified Description of the Function of the Neuron -- The Nature of the Nerve Impulse -- The Process of Stimulation -- The Mechanism of Stimulating Pulses by Pulses; Its Digital Character -- Time Characteristics of Nerve Response, Fatigue, and Recovery. |
|
Size of a Neuron. Comparisons with Artificial Components -- Energy Dissipation. Comparisons with Artificial Components -- Summary of Comparisons -- Stimulation Criteria -- The Simplest Elementary Logical -- More Complicated Stimulation Criteria -- The Threshold -- The Summation Time -- Stimulation Criteria for Receptors -- The Problem of Memory within the Nervous System -- Principles for Estimating the Capacity of the Memory in the Nervous System -- Memory Capacity Estimates with These Stipulations -- Various Possible Physical Embodiments of the Memory. |
|
Analogies with Artificial Computing Machines -- The Underlying Componentry of the Memory Need Not Be the Same as That of the Basic Active Organs -- Digital and Analog Parts in the Nervous System -- Role of the Genetic Mechanism in the Above Context -- Codes and Their Role in the Control of the Functioning of a Machine -- The Concept of a Complete Code -- The Concept of a Short Code -- The Function of a Short Code -- The Logical Structure of the Nervous System -- Importance of the Numerical Procedures -- Interaction of Numerical Procedures with Logic. |
| Subject |
Computers.
|
|
Cybernetics.
|
|
COMPUTERS -- Cybernetics.
|
|
PSYCHOLOGY -- Cognitive Psychology.
|
|
Computers. (OCoLC)fst00872776
|
|
Cybernetics. (OCoLC)fst00885777
|
| Added Title |
Computer and the brain |
| Other Form: |
Print version: 9780300181111 0300181116 |
|
Print version: Von Neumann, John, 1903-1957. Computer and the brain. 3rd ed. New Haven, Conn. ; London : Yale University Press, 2012 9780300181111 (OCoLC)775027922 |
| ISBN |
0300188080 (electronic bk.) |
|
9780300188080 (electronic bk.) |
|
