Since World War II, a group of scientists has been attempting to understand the humannervous system and to build computer systems that emulate the brain's abilities. Many of the earlyworkers in this field of neural networks came from cybernetics; others came from neuroscience,physics, electrical engineering, mathematics, psychology, even economics. In this collection ofinterviews, those who helped to shape the field share their childhood memories, their influences,how they became interested in neural networks, and what they see as its future.The subjects tellstories that have been told, referred to, whispered about, and imagined throughout the history ofthe field. Together, the interviews form a Rashomon-like web of reality. Some of the mythic peopleresponsible for the foundations of modern brain theory and cybernetics, such as Norbert Wiener,Warren McCulloch, and Frank Rosenblatt, appear prominently in the recollections. The intervieweesagree about some things and disagree about more. Together, they tell the story of how science isactually done, including the false starts, and the Darwinian struggle for jobs, resources, andreputation. Although some of the interviews contain technical material, there is no actualmathematics in the book.Contributors : James A. Anderson, Michael Arbib, Gail Carpenter, LeonCooper, Jack Cowan, Walter Freeman, Stephen Grossberg, Robert Hecht-Neilsen, Geoffrey Hinton, TeuvoKohonen, Bart Kosko, Jerome Lettvin, Carver Mead, David Rumelhart, Terry Sejnowski, Paul Werbos,Bernard Widrow.
