Themes: The Society of Mind: mini-theories and representations bridging computing and the brain

Source: (Lawler) Cognitive Science and Education: the future within our reach:
a series of Invited Talks at Purdue University, 1988-1989
This panel is linked directly from “Mentors” in the right sidebar and the Introductions page, LC0aV, which serves as a directory to all these talks.

Abstract: a useful response to the Selfridge challenge: 300 mini-theories
This presentation was in the week following the death of Feynman, a personal friend and colleague of Minsky’s. Following soon after publication of
the Society of Mind, the presentation circles around aspects of that work with both comments on the book and attempts to present examples, but it is
enriched as well by Minsky’s reflections on Feynman’s thinking. (There may even be a hint, to those familiar with QED, that Feynman’s insight that
clear reflection is a consequence of interference/cancellation of unaligned photon flows serves as a model for the emergence of decisions from societies
of agents by administrative cancellation/repression of weaker agents.)
Though often considered an iconoclast (even so characterized by Lawler in the Selfridge introduction), many will be surprised by Minsky’s remarkable
statement of his appreciation of Buddha in answer to the first audience question (in pane “f” below).

Link Embed Copy and paste this HTML code into your webpage to embed. Introduction by Bob Lawler, Feb. 1988, 8.5mb	Link Embed Copy and paste this HTML code into your webpage to embed. on getting ideas, Poincaré, and Feynman 26mb
Link Embed Copy and paste this HTML code into your webpage to embed. 300 little theories & future brain science, 20mb	Link Embed Copy and paste this HTML code into your webpage to embed. Why Psychology can not be like Physics 12mb
Link Embed Copy and paste this HTML code into your webpage to embed. Phenomena and models of Language Understanding 32mb	Link Embed Copy and paste this HTML code into your webpage to embed. Learning, Multiple Mechanisms, & a break 11mb
Link Embed Copy and paste this HTML code into your webpage to embed. audience questions (1), 31mb	Link Embed Copy and paste this HTML code into your webpage to embed. audience questions (2), 35mb

A classmate of my student days, Kip Thorne, specified, in the early seventies, that as I wanted to compare and understand the similarities and differences between human and machine intelligence, I had to move to Boston and study with Marvin Minsky. I did so.
Marvin was more than my hero; with his single-minded advocacy and belief in the validity of his vision of mind, he had the dedication of a saint. Even as a radical atheist in my mid years, I venerated him, “Saint Marvin of the Machinery.” I still do… but that theme remains to be developed in other contexts.

Obituaries:
New York Times:
MarvinMinskyDiesAt88,NYTimes,160124