Standards in Artificial Intelligence

[Nick Maclaren]

In article <BfYN5.3891$mq1.265651 at bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net>,
Stephen Fuld <s.fuld at worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>
>Frank Rosenblatt's work on Perceptrons was indeed started in the late 1950s.
>But the idea of self modifying connections among neurons accounting for
>learning goes back at least to Donald Hebb's pioneering book, "The
>Organization of Behavior" in 1949.

Interesting.  I can remember talking to various colleagues in the
early 1970s about the properties of a computer with self-modifying
connexions, and people saying that it had been considered many
years before.  I don't think that it was the same as the ones
you mention, but ideas have a habit of generating spontaneously
in many places at once.

I am pretty sure that the basic concepts were speculated before
even that, but I  don't have a reference - it may, however, have
been in a science fiction context, where a lot of good ideas
have originated :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren,
University of Cambridge Computing Service,
New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QG, England.
Email:  nmm1 at cam.ac.uk
Tel.:  +44 1223 334761    Fax:  +44 1223 334679