Marvin Minsky was a pioneer in artificial intelligence, inventing the first artificial neural network and co-founding the MIT AI Lab. He also invented the scanning cofocal microscope and the first head-mounted graphical display. He continued to be intellectually active until his death in 2016.
Marvin Minsky, born in 1927, was one of the biggest names in artificial intelligence (AI) for the last half of the 20th century and into the early 21st century. He is considered one of the most important pioneers in the field and has been working in it since before it was formally conceived in 1956. He continues to be intellectually active to this day, publishing a book called The Emotion Machine in November 2006 and attending conferences from time to time. time.
In 1951 Marvin Minsky invented SNARC, the first Artificial Neural Network (ANN), which gave birth to an entire field of AI. Together with Seymour Papert, he created programs using Logo, one of the first programming languages. With Papert he wrote the book Perceptrons, fundamental in the field of artificial neural networks. The neural network idea was unique in that it didn’t require programmers to specify every line of code, but could be “grown” and trained organically.
In 1961 Marvin Minsky invented the scanning cofocal microscope, the predecessor of the laser scanning confocal microscope, which produces high-resolution, in-focus images of thick specimens in biology. It wasn’t until the late 1980s that the technology needed to take full advantage of the principles first elucidated by Minsky was developed, but after it became possible, cofocal microscopes were the new standard.
In 1963 Marvin Minsky invented the first head-mounted graphical display, widely considered decades ahead of its time. Like the cofocal microscope, it will take decades before parts can be improved enough to be lightweight and effective. To this day, there is no very successful head-mounted graphical display, although when one is finally developed, we can be sure that Minsky will be mentioned as the first originator of the idea.
Marvin Minsky is known to be associated with the MIT Media Lab and the MIT AI Lab, which he co-founded. In his provocative article, “Will Robots Inherent the Earth?”, He speculates about a future where humans merge with robots to create a posthuman race. He is also a fervent advocate of cryonics, the practice of freezing the brain for potential future awakening.
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