The discovery of the artificial. Some protocybernetic developments 1930–1940

Cordeschi, Roberto

doi:10.1007/bf01891917

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 26 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Passages of these books have been published, with an introduction, in (Hull 1962). 5 See also (Baernstein and Hull 1931) and (Krueger and Hull 1931); for a detailed analysis of Hull's machines, see (Cordeschi 1991). In their presentation of the above results Hull and Baernstein emphasize two points. First, that the existence of such a machine shows that "mental processes are independent of the material substance," and second, that to build such a machine one has to identify the "essential functions" of the behavior that is being modeled.…”

Section: Hull's Psychic Machinesmentioning

confidence: 98%

Learning from the existence of models: On psychic machines, tortoises, and computer simulations

Schlimm

2008

Synthese

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Using four examples of models and computer simulations from the history of psychology, I discuss some of the methodological aspects involved in their construction and use, and I illustrate how the existence of a model can demonstrate the viability of a hypothesis that had previously been deemed impossible on a priori grounds. This shows a new way in which scientists can learn from models that extends the analysis of Morgan (1999), who has identified the construction and manipulation of models as those phases in which learning from models takes place.

show abstract

Section: Hull's Psychic Machinesmentioning

confidence: 98%

Learning from the existence of models: On psychic machines, tortoises, and computer simulations

Schlimm

2008

Synthese

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…16. For an analysis of Rashevsky's early work as part of a "culture of the artificial" during the 1930s, see Cordeschi (1991). sky's mathematical biology considered the detailed structure of individual organisms (Rashevsky, 1938, p. vii).…”

Section: Rashevsky's Project In Mathematical Biologymentioning

confidence: 99%

(Physio)logical circuits: The intellectual origins of the McCulloch–Pitts neural networks

Abraham¹

2002

J History Behavioral Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article examines the intellectual and institutional factors that contributed to the collaboration of neuropsychiatrist Warren McCulloch and mathematician Walter Pitts on the logic of neural networks, which culminated in their 1943 publication, "A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity." Historians and scientists alike often refer to the McCulloch-Pitts paper as a landmark event in the history of cybernetics, and fundamental to the development of cognitive science and artificial intelligence. This article seeks to bring some historical context to the McCulloch-Pitts collaboration itself, namely, their intellectual and scientific orientations and backgrounds, the key concepts that contributed to their paper, and the institutional context in which their collaboration was made. Although they were almost a generation apart and had dissimilar scientific backgrounds, McCulloch and Pitts had similar intellectual concerns, simultaneously motivated by issues in philosophy, neurology, and mathematics. This article demonstrates how these issues converged and found resonance in their model of neural networks. By examining the intellectual backgrounds of McCulloch and Pitts as individuals, it will be shown that besides being an important event in the history of cybernetics proper, the McCulloch-Pitts collaboration was an important result of early twentieth-century efforts to apply mathematics to neurological phenomena.

show abstract

“…From a historical perspective, the latter approach borrows its original inspiration from the methodological apparatus developed by the scholars in cybernetics ( Rosenblueth and Wiener, 1945 ; Wiener, 1961 ; Cordeschi, 1991 ). One of underlying ideas of cybernetics was, indeed, one of building mechanical models to simulate the adaptive behavior of natural systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing the Explanatory Power of Bionic Systems With the Minimal Cognitive Grid

Lieto

2022

Front. Robot. AI

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this article, I argue that the artificial components of hybrid bionic systems do not play a direct explanatory role, i.e., in simulative terms, in the overall context of the systems in which they are embedded in. More precisely, I claim that the internal procedures determining the output of such artificial devices, replacing biological tissues and connected to other biological tissues, cannot be used to directly explain the corresponding mechanisms of the biological component(s) they substitute (and therefore cannot be used to explain the local mechanisms determining an overall biological or cognitive function replicated by such bionic models). I ground this analysis on the use of the Minimal Cognitive Grid (MCG), a novel framework proposed in Lieto (Cognitive design for artificial minds, 2021) to rank the epistemological and explanatory status of biologically and cognitively inspred artificial systems. Despite the lack of such a direct mechanistic explanation from the artificial component, however, I also argue that the hybrid bionic systems can have an indirect explanatory role similar to the one played by some AI systems built by using an overall structural design approach (but including the partial adoption of functional components). In particular, the artificial replacement of part(s) of a biological system can provide i) a local functional account of that part(s) in the context of the overall functioning of the hybrid biological–artificial system and ii) global insights about the structural mechanisms of the biological elements connected to such artificial devices.

show abstract

The discovery of the artificial. Some protocybernetic developments 1930–1940

Cited by 10 publications

References 26 publications

Learning from the existence of models: On psychic machines, tortoises, and computer simulations

Learning from the existence of models: On psychic machines, tortoises, and computer simulations

(Physio)logical circuits: The intellectual origins of the McCulloch–Pitts neural networks

Analyzing the Explanatory Power of Bionic Systems With the Minimal Cognitive Grid

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About