Marvin Minsky died, “father” of artificial intelligence – Los Andes (Argentina)

The philosopher and scientist Marvin Minsky (New York, 1927), whose work inspired the birth of the personal computer and the Internet, died Sunday in Boston at age 88 because of a cerebral hemorrhage, according to the newspaper The New York Times.

Professor Minsky is known as the “father” of artificial intelligence because, long before the advent of the microprocessor and the supercomputer, tried to show that machines can learn to reason and use the sense common. This effort led him to make essential contributions in mathematics, cognitive science, robotics and philosophy.

Minsky laid the foundations of artificial intelligence-then concretized by Alan Turing, led by the visionary dream of providing the computers with reasoning ability. His real fascination was not the computing power of machines, but human intelligence. I thought that machines could think like people.

Since the middle of last century, the New York professor, who studied mathematics at Harvard and Priceton, worked in the description of the psychological processes of human beings and the theorizing about giving machines intelligence.

In 1951 SNARC built the first neural network simulator. He also invented other gadgets such as mechanical hands, robotic devices and synthesizer “Muse” for musical variations.

In 1959 he co-founded, with John McCarthy, the project of Artificial Intelligence Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT ), later renamed the Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence. However, the term “artificial intelligence” is attributed to his colleague McCarthy.

The laboratory Minsky and McCarthy had a great impact on the computer industry, especially in culture and design software computer. This planted the idea that information should be shared freely, thus giving rise to the movement of open source software.

In 1974 he became professor of Electrical MIT Engineering and began working as Donner Professor of Science, a position he held until 1989. Later, from 1990 was head of the Toshiba Chair of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT, dedicated to the research of the most advanced information technologies. He was also a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States and the American Association for Artificial Intelligence.

The book Minsky “The Society of Mind” (Ediciones Galapagos) is considered a basic text to explore the structure and intellectual function, and to understand the diversity of mechanisms that interact in intelligence and thought. This theory was born from a joint effort with the educator and computer scientist Seymour Papert.

In 1969 the scientist was awarded the Turing Award, the most important in the computer industry award. But during his career he received other awards such as the IEEE Intelligent Systems Hall of Fame (2011).