*Marvin Lee Minsky* (August 9, 1927 – January 24, 2016) was an American cognitive <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_scientist> and
computer scientist <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_scientist>
concerned largely with research of artificial intelligence <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence> (AI), co-founder
of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology>'s
AI laboratory, and author of several texts concerning AI and
philosophy.^[12] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-dblp-12> ^[13] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-microsoft-13>
^[14] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-14> ^[15] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-natureobit-15>

Minsky received many accolades and honors, including the 1969 Turing
Award <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_Award>.


Biography

Marvin Lee Minsky was born in New York City, to an eye surgeon <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_surgeon> father, Henry, and to a
mother, Fannie (Reiser), who was a Zionist <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zionism> activist.^[15] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-natureobit-15>
^[16] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-16> ^[17] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-17> His family
was Jewish. He attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical_Culture_Fieldston_School> and the
Bronx High School of Science <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronx_High_School_of_Science>. He later
attended Phillips Academy
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips_Academy> in Andover <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andover,_Massachusetts>, Massachusetts <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts>. He then served in the US
Navy <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy> from 1944 to
1945. He received a B.A. in mathematics from Harvard University <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_University> in 1950 and a Ph.D. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Philosophy> in mathematics from Princeton University
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princeton_University> in 1954. His
doctoral dissertation was titled "Theory of neural-analog reinforcement
systems and its application to the brain-model problem."^[18] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-18> ^[19] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-minskyphd-19>
^[20]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-AIMag80th-20> He
was a Junior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Society_of_Fellows> from 1954 to 1957.^[21] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-21>
^[22] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-22>

He was on the MIT <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT> faculty from 1958
to his death. He joined the staff at MIT Lincoln Laboratory <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_Lincoln_Laboratory> in 1958, and a
year later he and John McCarthy <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCarthy_(computer_scientist)>
initiated what is, as of 2019, named the MIT Computer Science and
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_Computer_Science_and_Artificial_Intelligence_Laboratory>.^[23]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-23> ^[24] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-24> He was the
Toshiba Professor of Media Arts
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Arts> and Sciences, and professor
of electrical engineering <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_engineering> and computer
science <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_science>.


Contributions in computer science

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Confocal_measurement_of_1-euro-star_3d_and_euro.png>

3D profile of a coin (partial) measured with a modern confocal white
light microscope <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confocal_microscope>

Minsky's inventions include the first head-mounted graphical display <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head-mounted_graphical_display>
(1963)^[25]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-brief-25> and the confocal microscope
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confocal_microscope>^[2] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-confocal-2>
^[note 1] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-26>
(1957, a predecessor to today's widely used confocal laser scanning
microscope
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confocal_laser_scanning_microscope>). He developed, with Seymour Papert
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Papert>, the first Logo <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_programming_language> "turtle <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_(robot)>". Minsky also built, in
1951, the first randomly wired neural network learning machine, SNARC <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_Neural_Analog_Reinforcement_Calculator>.
In 1962, Minsky worked on small universal Turing machines <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Turing_machine> and published
his well-known 7-state, 4-symbol machine.^[26] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-27>

Minsky's book /Perceptrons
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptrons_(book)>/ (written with
Seymour Papert) attacked the work of Frank Rosenblatt <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Rosenblatt>, and became the
foundational work in the analysis of artificial neural networks <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_neural_network>. The book is
the center of a controversy in the history of AI, as some claim it to
have had great importance in discouraging research of neural networks in
the 1970s, and contributing to the so-called "AI winter <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_winter>".^[27] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-28> He also
founded several other AI models. His paper /A framework for representing knowledge/^[28]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-29> created a new paradigm in knowledge representation. While his /Perceptrons/ is now
more a historical than practical book, the theory of frames is in wide use.^[29]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-frames-30> Minsky
also wrote of the possibility that extraterrestrial life <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_life> may think like
humans, permitting communication.^[30] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-minsky198504-31>

In the early 1970s, at the MIT <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT>
Artificial Intelligence Lab, Minsky and Papert started developing what
came to be known as the Society of Mind <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Mind> theory. The theory
attempts to explain how what we call intelligence could be a product of
the interaction of non-intelligent parts. Minsky says that the biggest
source of ideas about the theory came from his work in trying to create
a machine that uses a robotic arm, a video camera, and a computer to
build with children's blocks. In 1986, Minsky published /The Society of
Mind/, a comprehensive book on the theory which, unlike most of his
previously published work, was written for the general public.

The MA-3 Robotic Manipulator Arm, on display at MIT Museum <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_Museum>

*
General view
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MA-3_Robotic_Manipulator_Arm-IMG_6023-white.jpg>

General view

*
the Belgrade Hand
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MA-3_Robotic_Manipulator_Arm-IMG_6021-white.jpg>

the Belgrade Hand

In November 2006, Minsky published /The Emotion Machine <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emotion_Machine>/, a book that
critiques many popular theories of how human minds work and suggests alternative theories, often replacing simple ideas with more complex
ones. Recent drafts of the book are freely available from his
webpage.^[31] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-32>


Role in popular culture

Minsky was an adviser^[32] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-33> on Stanley
Kubrick <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Kubrick>'s movie /2001: A
Space Odyssey/
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film)>; one of the movie's characters, Victor Kaminski, was named in Minsky's honor.^[33] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-34> Minsky is
mentioned explicitly in Arthur C. Clarke <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke>'s derivative novel of
the same name, where he is portrayed as achieving a crucial
break-through in artificial intelligence in the then-future 1980s,
paving the way for HAL 9000 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAL_9000> in
the early 21st century:

In the 1980s, Minsky and Good
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I._J._Good> had shown how artificial
neural networks
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_neural_network> could be
generated automatically—self replicated—in accordance with any
arbitrary learning program. Artificial brains could be grown by a
process strikingly analogous to the development of a human brain. In
any given case, the precise details would never be known, and even
if they were, they would be millions of times too complex for human
understanding.^[34]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-35>

In Fargo Season 3 episode 3 (titled "The Law of Non-Contradiction <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Law_of_Non-Contradiction>"), at least
two allusions are made to Minsky. The first, through the depiction of a "useless machine <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useless_machine>": a
device that was invented by Minsky as a philosophical joke. The second,
through the depiction of an animation of a robot called "minsky" - a
character in a sci-fi novel called "The Planet Wyh".


Personal life

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Minskytron-PDP-1-20070512.jpg>
The Minskytron or "Three Position Display" running on the Computer
History Museum <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_History_Museum>'s
PDP-1 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-1>, 2007

In 1952, Minsky married pediatrician Gloria Rudisch; together they had
three children.^[35]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-36> Minsky was a talented improvisational pianist^[36] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-globe-obit-37>
who published musings on the relations between music and psychology <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_psychology>.


Opinions

Minsky was an atheist.^[37] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-38> He was a
signatory to the Scientists' Open Letter on Cryonics <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryonics>.^[38] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-Letter-39>

He was a critic of the Loebner Prize <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loebner_Prize> for conversational
robots,^[39] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-40>
and argued that a fundamental difference between humans <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human> and machines <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine> was that while humans are
machines, they are machines in which intelligence emerges from the
interplay of the many unintelligent but semi-autonomous agents that
comprise the brain.^[40] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-nytimes-obit-41>
He argued that "somewhere down the line, some computers will become more intelligent than most people," but that it was very hard to predict how
fast progress would be.^[41] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-42> He cautioned
that an artificial superintelligence <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superintelligence> designed to solve an innocuous mathematical problem might decide to assume control <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumental_convergence> of Earth's
resources to build supercomputers to help achieve its goal,^[42] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-43> but believed
that such negative scenarios are "hard to take seriously" because he
felt confident that AI would go through a lot of testing before being deployed.^[43] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-44>


Association with Jeffrey Epstein

Minsky received a $100,000 research grant from Jeffrey Epstein <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Epstein> in 2002, four years
before Epstein's first arrest for sex offenses; it was the first from
Epstein to MIT. Minsky received no further research grants from
him.^[44] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-45>
^[45] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-jan2020-46>

Minsky organized two academic symposia on Epstein's private island
Little Saint James <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Saint_James,_U.S._Virgin_Islands>,
one in 2002 and another in 2011, after Epstein was a registered sex offender.^[46] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-:TheVerge-47>
Virginia Giuffre
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Roberts_Giuffre> testified in a
2015 deposition in her defamation lawsuit against Epstein's associate
Ghislaine Maxwell <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghislaine_Maxwell> that Maxwell "directed" her to have sex with Minsky among others. There has
been no allegation that sex between them took place nor a lawsuit
against Minsky's estate.^[47] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-beast-48>
Minsky's widow, Gloria Rudisch, says that he could not have had sex with
any of the women at Epstein's residences, as they were always together
during all of the visits to Epstein's residences.^[48] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-timeGloria-49>
^[49] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-post-50>


Death

In January 2016 Minsky died of a cerebral hemorrhage, at the age of
88.^[50] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-51>
Minsky was a member of Alcor Life Extension Foundation <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcor_Life_Extension_Foundation>'s
Scientific Advisory Board
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advisory_Board>.^[51] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-AlcorBoard-52>
Alcor will neither confirm nor deny whether Minsky was cryonically <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryonics> preserved.^[52] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-Alcor_News-53>


Bibliography (selected)

* 1967 – /Computation: Finite and Infinite Machines/, Prentice-Hall
* 1986 – /The Society of Mind
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Mind>/
* 2006 – /The Emotion Machine
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emotion_Machine>: Commonsense
Thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Human Mind/


Awards and affiliations

Minsky won the Turing Award <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_Award>
(the greatest distinction in computer science)^[40] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-nytimes-obit-41>
in 1969, the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_of_Achievement> in 1982,^[53] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-54> the Japan
Prize <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Prize> in 1990, the IJCAI
Award for Research Excellence <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IJCAI_Award_for_Research_Excellence> for
1991, and the Benjamin Franklin Medal <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin_Medal_(Franklin_Institute)> from the Franklin Institute
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Institute> for 2001.^[54] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-franklinmedal-55>
In 2006, he was inducted as a Fellow of the Computer History Museum <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_History_Museum> "for co-founding
the field of artificial intelligence, creating early neural networks and robots, and developing theories of human and machine cognition."^[55] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-56> In 2011,
Minsky was inducted into IEEE Intelligent Systems <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_Intelligent_Systems>' AI Hall of
Fame for the "significant contributions to the field of AI and
intelligent systems".^[56] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-57> ^[57] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-58> In 2014,
Minsky won the Dan David Prize
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_David_Prize> for "Artificial
Intelligence <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_Intelligence>,
the Digital Mind".^[58] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-59> He was also
awarded with the 2013 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBVA_Foundation_Frontiers_of_Knowledge_Awards> in the Information and Communication Technologies category.^[59] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-60>

Minsky was affiliated with the following organizations:

* United States National Academy of Engineering
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Academy_of_Engineering>^[25]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-brief-25>
* United States National Academy of Sciences
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Academy_of_Sciences>^[25]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-brief-25>
* Extropy Institute
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extropy_Institute>'s Council of
Advisors^[60]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-61>
* Alcor Life Extension Foundation
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcor_Life_Extension_Foundation>'s
Scientific Advisory Board^[51]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-AlcorBoard-52>
* kynamatrix Research Network
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kynamatrix_Research_Network>'s Board
of Directors^[61]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky#cite_note-62>

--
Pity the fool who followed his GPS over the cliff

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On 21/05/2023 22:37, Nic wrote:

*Marvin Lee Minsky* (August 9, 1927 – January 24, 2016) was an American

[NOTE: The following precis of Nic's post was generated by ChatGPT ]


<snip>

Thank you for the usual textual diarrhea Nic, as is you wont.

Have you stopped taking those green pills the doctor prescribed?

</ChatGPT>


--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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