Marvin Minsky (1927–2016,) in full Marvin Lee Minsky, was an American mathematician and computer scientist. One of the most prominent practitioners of the science of artificial intelligence (A.I.,) he laid the foundation for the possibilities of imparting common-sense reasoning to computers.
Born in New York City, Minsky served in the U.S. Navy 1944–45. He graduated with honors in mathematics from Harvard University in 1950 and a doctorate in mathematics from Princeton in 1954. He joined Harvard as a member of the prestigious Society of Fellows, where he invented the confocal scanning microscope in 1955.
In 1957, Minsky moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and remained there for the rest of his career. In 1959, he co-founded (with John McCarthy) the Artificial Intelligence Project, one of the dominant research centers for the nascent discipline of artificial intelligence.
Minsky’s books include Steps toward Artificial Intelligence (1960,) The Society of Mind (1985,) Perceptrons: An Introduction to Computational Geometry (1969,) and The Emotion Machine (2006.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Marvin Minsky
Imagine what it would be like if TV actually were good. It would be the end of everything we know.
—Marvin Minsky
Topics: Television
Societies need rules that make no sense for individuals. For example, it makes no difference whether a single car drives on the left or on the right. But it makes all the difference when there are many cars!
—Marvin Minsky
Topics: Society
You don’t understand anything until you learn it more than one way.
—Marvin Minsky
Topics: Learning
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