:Marvin Minsky
{{Short description|American cognitive scientist (1927–2016)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2016}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Marvin Minsky
| image = Marvin Minsky at OLPCb.jpg
| caption = Minsky in 2008
| birth_name = Marvin Lee Minsky
| birth_date = {{birth date|1927|8|9}}
| birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2016|1|24|1927|8|9}}
| death_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
| spouse = {{marriage|Gloria Rudisch|1952}}
| children = 3
| field = {{Plainlist|
| workplaces = Massachusetts Institute of Technology
| education = Harvard University (BA)
Princeton University (MA, PhD)
| doctoral_advisor = Albert W. Tucker{{MathGenealogy |id=6869 |title=Marvin Lee Minsky}}{{AIGenealogy |id=21 |title=Marvin Lee Minsky}}
| thesis_title = Theory of Neural-Analog Reinforcement Systems and Its Application to the Brain Model Problem
| thesis_year = 1954
| thesis_url = https://www.proquest.com/docview/301998727
| doctoral_students = {{Plainlist|
- James Robert Slagle
- Manuel Blum
- Daniel Bobrow
- Ivan Sutherland
- Bertram Raphael
- William A. Martin
- Joel Moses
- Warren Teitelman
- Adolfo Guzmán Arenas
- Patrick Winston
- Eugene Charniak
- Gerald Jay Sussman
- Scott Fahlman
- Benjamin Kuipers
- Luc Steels
- Danny Hillis
- K. Eric Drexler
- Berthold K.P. Horn
- Carl Hewitt
- David Levitt{{cite web|title=Personal page for Marvin Minsky|url=http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/people.html|website=web.media.mit.edu|access-date=23 June 2016|archive-date=October 21, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191021224244/https://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/people.html|url-status=dead}}
}}
| known_for = {{Plainlist|
- Artificial intelligence{{Cite journal |last=Minsky |first=Marvin |doi=10.1109/JRPROC.1961.287775 |title=Steps toward Artificial Intelligence |url=http://courses.csail.mit.edu/6.803/pdf/steps.pdf |journal=Proceedings of the IRE |volume=49 |pages=8–30 |year=1961 |citeseerx=10.1.1.79.7413|s2cid=14250548 }}
Confocal microscope{{Cite journal |last=Minsky |first=Marvin |title=Memoir on inventing the confocal scanning microscope |doi=10.1002/sca.4950100403 |journal=Scanning |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=128–138 |year=1988 }} - Useless machine{{cite news|last=Pesta|first=A|title=Looking for Something Useful to Do With Your Time? Don't Try This|url=https://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323628804578348572687608806|access-date=March 24, 2014|newspaper=WSJ|date=March 12, 2014}}
- Triadex Muse{{cite journal|last1=Hillis|first1=Danny|author-link=Danny Hillis|last2=McCarthy|first2=John|author2-link=John McCarthy (computer scientist)|last3=Mitchell|first3=Tom M.|last4=Mueller|first4=Erik T.|last5=Riecken|first5=Doug|last6=Sloman|first6=Aaron|last7=Winston|first7=Patrick Henry|title=In Honor of Marvin Minsky's Contributions on his 80th Birthday|journal=AI Magazine|date=2007|volume=28|issue=4|page=109|doi=10.1609/aimag.v28i4.2064}}
- Perceptrons{{cite book |last1=Papert |first1=Seymour |author-link=Seymour Papert |last2=Minsky |first2=Marvin Lee |title=Perceptrons: an introduction to computational geometry |publisher=MIT Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-262-63111-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/perceptronsintro00mins }}
The Society of Mind{{cite book |last=Minsky |first=Marvin Lee |title=The Society of Mind |publisher=Simon and Schuster |location=New York |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-671-60740-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/societyofmind00marv }} The first comprehensive description of the Society of Mind theory of intellectual structure and development. See also The Society of Mind (CD-ROM version), Voyager, 1996. - The Emotion Machine{{cite book |last=Minsky |first=Marvin Lee |title=The Emotion Machine: Commonsense Thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Human Mind |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-7432-7664-1 }}
- Frames
- SNARC
- Dartmouth workshop}}
| prizes = {{Plainlist|
- Turing Award (1969)
- Japan Prize (1990)
- AAAI Fellow (1990){{cite web|url=https://www.aaai.org/Awards/fellows-list.php|title=Elected AAAI Fellows|website=www.aaai.org}}
- IJCAI Award for Research Excellence (1991)
- Benjamin Franklin Medal (2001)
- BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2013)}}
| footnotes =
| website = {{URL|http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky}}
}}
Marvin Lee Minsky (August 9, 1927 – January 24, 2016) was an American cognitive and computer scientist concerned largely with research in artificial intelligence (AI). He co-founded the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AI laboratory and wrote extensively about AI and philosophy.{{DBLP|name=Marvin Minsky}}{{AcademicSearch|771410}}{{Cite web|url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=marvin+minsky|title=Google Scholar|website=scholar.google.com}}{{cite journal |last=Winston |first=Patrick Henry |author-link=Patrick Winston |title=Marvin L. Minsky (1927–2016) |journal=Nature |volume=530 |issue=7590 |year=2016 |page=282 |pmid=26887486|doi=10.1038/530282a |bibcode=2016Natur.530..282W|doi-access=free }}
Minsky received many accolades and honors, including the 1969 Turing Award.
Early life and education
Marvin Lee Minsky was born in New York City, to Henry, an eye surgeon, and Fannie (Reiser), a Zionist activist.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/scienceincontemp0000swed|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/scienceincontemp0000swed/page/188 188]|quote=marvin minsky jewish.|title=Science in the Contemporary World: An Encyclopedia|first=Eric Gottfrid|last=Swedin|date=August 10, 2005|publisher=ABC-CLIO|via=Internet Archive}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/03/marvin-minsky-obituary|title=Marvin Minsky obituary|first=Martin|last=Campbell-Kelly|newspaper=The Guardian |date=February 3, 2016|via=www.theguardian.com}} His family was Jewish. He attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School and the Bronx High School of Science. He later attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. He then served in the US Navy from 1944 to 1945. He received a B.A. in mathematics from Harvard University in 1950 and a Ph.D. in mathematics from Princeton University in 1954. His doctoral dissertation was titled "Theory of neural-analog reinforcement systems and its application to the brain-model problem."{{Cite web|url=https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/SCSB-4802106|title=Theory of neural-analog reinforcement systems and its application to the brain-model problem|first=Marvin|last=Minsky|date=July 31, 1954|via=catalog.princeton.edu}}{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |first=Marvin Lee |last=Minsky |title=Theory of Neural-Analog Reinforcement Systems and Its Application to the Brain Model Problem |publisher=Princeton University |date=1954 |author-link=Marvin Minsky|oclc=3020680|id={{ProQuest|301998727}} }}{{cite journal
|last1=Hillis
|first1=Danny
|author-link=Danny Hillis
|last2=McCarthy |first2=John |author2-link=John McCarthy (computer scientist) |last3=Mitchell |first3=Tom M. |last4=Mueller |first4=Erik T. |last5=Riecken |first5=Doug |last6=Sloman |first6=Aaron |last7=Winston |first7=Patrick Henry
|title=In Honor of Marvin Minsky's Contributions on his 80th Birthday
|journal=AI Magazine
|volume=28
|issue=4
|pages=103–110
|year=2007
|url=http://www.aaai.org/ojs/index.php/aimagazine/article/view/2064/2058
|access-date=November 24, 2010}} He was a Junior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows from 1954 to 1957.[https://socfell.fas.harvard.edu/listed-term-0 Society of Fellows, Listed by Term]{{cite web|title= Marvin Minsky, Ph.D. Biography and Interview |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=American Academy of Achievement|url= https://achievement.org/achiever/marvin-minsky-ph-d/#interview}}
Minsky was on the MIT faculty from 1958 to his death. He joined the staff at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in 1958; a year later, he and John McCarthy initiated what was, {{as of|2003|lc=y}}, named the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.{{cite journal |last=Horgan |first=John |date=November 1993 |title=Profile: Marvin L. Minsky: The Mastermind of Artificial Intelligence |journal=Scientific American |volume=269|issue=5 |pages=14–15 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican1193-35 |bibcode=1993SciAm.269e..35H}}{{cite web|last=Rifkin|first=Glenn|title=Marvin Minsky, pioneer in artificial intelligence, dies at 88|url=http://tech.mit.edu/V135/N38/minsky.html|website=The Tech|publisher=MIT|access-date=20 July 2017|date=28 January 2016|archive-date=November 21, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171121131830/http://tech.mit.edu/V135/N38/minsky.html|url-status=dead}} He was the Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences as well as professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT.
Contributions in computer science
File:Confocal measurement of 1-euro-star 3d and euro.png]]
Minsky's inventions include the first head-mounted graphical display (1963){{cite web |url = http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/minskybiog.html |title = Brief Academic Biography of Marvin Minsky |website = Web.media.mit.edu |access-date = January 26, 2016 |archive-date = May 16, 2018 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180516142208/http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/minskybiog.html |url-status = dead }} and the confocal microscope{{NoteTag|The patent for Minsky's Microscopy Apparatus was applied for in 1957, and subsequently granted US Patent Number 3,013,467 in 1961. According to his published biography on the MIT Media Lab webpage, "In 1956, when a Junior Fellow at Harvard, Minsky invented and built the first Confocal Scanning Microscope, an optical instrument with unprecedented resolution and image quality".}} (1957, a predecessor to today's widely used confocal laser scanning microscope). With Seymour Papert, he developed the first Logo "turtle". In 1951, Minsky built the first randomly wired neural network learning machine, SNARC. In 1962, he worked on small universal Turing machines and published his well-known 7-state, 4-symbol machine.Turlough Neary, Damien Woods, "Small Weakly Universal Turing Machines", Machines, Computations, and Universality 2007, proceedings, Orleans, France, September 10–13, 2007, {{isbn|3540745920}}, p. 262-263
Minsky's book Perceptrons (written with Papert) attacked the work of Frank Rosenblatt, and became the foundational work in the analysis of artificial neural networks. The book is the center of a controversy in the history of AI, as some claim it greatly discouraged research on neural networks in the 1970s and contributed to the so-called "AI winter".{{cite journal |last=Olazaran|first=Mikel|title=A Sociological Study of the Official History of the Perceptrons Controversy|journal=Social Studies of Science|date=August 1996|volume=26|issue=3|pages=611–659|jstor=285702|doi=10.1177/030631296026003005 |s2cid=16786738}} Minsky also founded several other AI models. His paper "A framework for representing knowledge"Minsky, M. (1975). A framework for representing knowledge. In P. H. Winston (Ed.), The psychology of computer vision. New York: McGraw-Hill Book. created a new paradigm in knowledge representation. Perceptrons is now more a historical than practical book, but the theory of frames is in wide use.{{cite book |author= |doi=10.3115/980190.980222 |chapter=Minsky's frame system theory |title=Proceedings of the 1975 workshop on Theoretical issues in natural language processing – TINLAP '75 |pages=104–116 |year=1975 |s2cid=1870840 }} Minsky also wrote of the possibility that extraterrestrial life may think like humans, thus permitting communication.{{cite magazine |last=Minsky |first=Marvin |date=April 1985 |title = Communication with Alien Intelligence |url = https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1985-04/1985_04_BYTE_10-04_Artificial_Intelligence#page/n127/mode/2up |magazine=Byte |location=Peterborough, New Hampshire |publisher=UBM Technology Group |volume=10 |issue=4 |page=127 |access-date=July 30, 2019 }}
In the early 1970s, at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, Minsky and Papert started developing what came to be known as the 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 for the theory came from his work in trying to create a machine that uses a robotic arm, a videocamera, and a computer to build with children's blocks. In 1986, he 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.
{{Gallery
|title=The MA-3 Robotic Manipulator Arm, on display at MIT Museum
|align=center
|MA-3 Robotic Manipulator Arm-IMG 6023-white.jpg|General view
|MA-3 Robotic Manipulator Arm-IMG 6021-white.jpg|The Belgrade Hand
}}
In 2006, Minsky published 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. Drafts of the book are available on his website.{{Cite web|url=http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/|title=Marvin Minsky's Home Page|website=web.media.mit.edu|access-date=January 26, 2016|archive-date=August 3, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080803231734/http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/|url-status=dead}}
Minsky also invented a "gravity machine" that will ring a bell if the gravitational constant changes, a theoretical possibility that is not expected to occur in the foreseeable future.
Role in popular culture
Minsky was an adviserFor more, see this interview, {{cite web|url=https://mitpress.mit.edu/e-books/Hal/chap2/two3.html |title=Scientist on the Set: An Interview with Marvin Minsky, Section 03 |access-date=2014-05-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120616204508/http://mitpress.mit.edu/e-books/Hal/chap2/two3.html |archive-date=June 16, 2012 }} on Stanley Kubrick's movie 2001: A Space Odyssey; one of the movie's characters, Victor Kaminski, was named in Minsky's honor.{{cite news|title=AI pioneer Marvin Minsky dies aged 88|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35409119|access-date=28 January 2016|work=BBC News|date=26 January 2016}} Minsky is mentioned explicitly in Arthur C. Clarke's derivative novel of the same name, where he is portrayed as achieving a crucial breakthrough in artificial intelligence in the then-future 1980s, paving the way for HAL 9000 in the early 21st century:
{{blockquote|In the 1980s, Minsky and Good had shown how artificial neural networks 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.{{cite book |last=Clarke |first=Arthur C. |author-link=Arthur C. Clarke |title=2001: A Space Odyssey |date=April 1968 |publisher=Hutchinson, UK
New American Library, US |page= |isbn=0-453-00269-2}}}}
In "The Law of Non-Contradiction", episode 3 of the television anthology series Fargo (Season 3), at least two allusions to Minsky are made. The first is through the depiction of a "useless machine": a device Minsky invented as a philosophical joke. The second is through the depiction of an animation of a robot called "minsky"—a character in a sci-fi novel called The Planet Wyh.
Personal life
File:Minskytron-PDP-1-20070512.jpg's PDP-1, 2007]]
In 1952, Minsky married pediatrician Gloria Rudisch; together they had three children.{{cite news|title=R.I.P. Marvin Minsky|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/01/25/marvin-minsky-1927-2016/|access-date=28 January 2016|newspaper=Washington Post|date=26 January 2016}} Minsky was a talented improvisational pianist{{cite news|title=Obituary: Marvin Minsky, 88; MIT professor helped found field of artificial intelligence|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/01/25/marvin-minsky-dies-mit-professor-helped-found-field-artificial-intelligence/A8y6ey8S0QAaao463Z2ooO/story.html|access-date=28 January 2016|work=Boston Globe|date=26 January 2016}} who published musings on the relations between music and psychology.
=Opinions=
Minsky was an atheist.{{cite book|title=Portraits of Great American Scientists|year=2001|publisher=Prometheus Books|isbn=9781573929325|page=[https://archive.org/details/portraitsofgreat00judi/page/74 74]|last1=Lederman|first1=Leon M.|author-link=Leon M. Lederman|last2=Scheppler|first2=Judith A.|chapter=Marvin Minsky: Mind Maker|quote=Another area where he "goes against the flow" is in his spiritual beliefs. As far as religion is concerned, he's a confirmed atheist. "I think it [religion] is a contagious mental disease. ... The brain has a need to believe it knows a reason for things.|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/portraitsofgreat00judi/page/74}} He was a signatory to the Scientists' Open Letter on Cryonics.{{cite web | title = SCIENTISTS' OPEN LETTER ON CRYONICS | work = The Science of Cryonics | publisher = Biostasis.com | date = March 19, 2004 | url = https://www.biostasis.com/scientists-open-letter-on-cryonics/ | access-date = 2020-05-06 }}
He was a critic of the Loebner Prize for conversational robots,[http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/02/26/loebner_part_one/index4.html Salon.com Technology |Artificial stupidity] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060630001944/http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/02/26/loebner_part_one/index4.html |date=June 30, 2006}} and argued that a fundamental difference between humans and machines is that while humans are machines, they are machines in which intelligence emerges from the interplay of the many unintelligent but semi-autonomous agents the brain comprises.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/26/business/marvin-minsky-pioneer-in-artificial-intelligence-dies-at-88.html|title=Marvin Minsky, Pioneer in Artificial Intelligence, Dies at 88|date=January 25, 2016|work=The New York Times|access-date=January 25, 2016}} 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.{{cite news|title=For artificial intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky, computers have soul|url=http://www.jpost.com/Business/Business-Features/For-artificial-intelligence-pioneer-Marvin-Minsky-computers-have-soul-352076|access-date=27 January 2016|newspaper=Jerusalem Post|date=13 May 2014}} He cautioned that an artificial superintelligence designed to solve an innocuous mathematical problem might decide to assume control of Earth's resources to build supercomputers to help achieve its goal,{{cite book|last1=Russell|first1=Stuart J.|author-link=Stuart J. Russell|last2=Norvig|first2=Peter|author2-link=Peter Norvig|title=Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach|date=2003|publisher=Prentice Hall|location=Upper Saddle River, N.J.|isbn=978-0137903955|chapter=Section 26.3: The Ethics and Risks of Developing Artificial Intelligence|quote=Similarly, Marvin Minsky once suggested that an AI program designed to solve the Riemann Hypothesis might end up taking over all the resources of Earth to build more powerful supercomputers to help achieve its goal.|title-link=Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach}} but believed that such scenarios are "hard to take seriously" because he felt confident that AI would be well tested before being deployed.{{cite news|last=Achenbach|first=Joel|title=Marvin Minsky, an architect of artificial intelligence, dies at 88|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/marvin-minsky-an-architect-of-artificial-intelligence-dies-at-88/2016/01/26/934e3d50-c430-11e5-8965-0607e0e265ce_story.html|access-date=27 January 2016|newspaper=Washington Post|date=6 January 2016}}
=Association with Jeffrey Epstein=
Minsky received a $100,000 research grant from 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.{{Cite journal|last=Subbaraman|first=Nidhi|date=2020-01-10|title=MIT review of Epstein donations finds "significant mistakes of judgment"|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00072-x|journal=Nature|language=en|doi=10.1038/d41586-020-00072-x|pmid=33420402|s2cid=214375389}}{{cite web |title=Report Concerning Jeffrey Epstein's Interactions with the Massachusetts Institute Of Technology|url=http://factfindingjan2020.mit.edu/files/MIT-report.pdf |date=January 10, 2020 |website=mit.edu |first1=Roberto M. |last1=Braceras |first2=Jennifer L. |last2=Chunias |first3=Kevin P. |last3=Martin|pages=9, 15}}
Minsky organized two academic symposia on Epstein's private island Little Saint James, one in 2002 and another in 2011, after Epstein was a registered sex offender.{{cite news|title=AI pioneer accused of having sex with trafficking victim on Jeffrey Epstein's island|url=https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/9/20798900/marvin-minsky-jeffrey-epstein-sex-trafficking-island-court-records-unsealed |date=August 9, 2019 |access-date=8 August 2019|newspaper=The Verge}} Virginia Giuffre testified in a 2015 deposition in her defamation lawsuit against Epstein's associate 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.{{cite news|last=Briquelet|first=Kate|display-authors=etal|work=The Daily Beast|date=September 16, 2019|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/jeffrey-epstein-unsealed-documents-name-powerful-men-in-sex-ring|access-date=8 August 2019|title=Jeffrey Epstein Accuser Names Powerful Men in Alleged Sex Ring}} 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 the visits to Epstein's residences.{{cite magazine|url=https://time.com/5651186/jeffrey-epstein-investigation-co-conspirators/ |date=August 14, 2019 |access-date=July 28, 2019 |title=The Jeffrey Epstein Investigation Continues After His Death. Here's Who Else Could Be Investigated|last1=Carlistle|first1=Madeline|last2=Mansoor|first2=Sanya|quote=Minsky’s widow, Gloria Rudisch, denied he had sex with Giuffre or any other girls|magazine=Time}}
=Death=
Minsky died of a cerebral hemorrhage in January 2016, at age 88.{{cite news |last=Pearson |first=Michael |title=Pioneering computer scientist Marvin Minsky dies at 88 |work=CNN |date=26 January 2016 |url=http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/26/us/marvin-minsky-obit-feat/ |access-date=2016-04-07}} Minsky was a member of Alcor Life Extension Foundation's Scientific Advisory Board.{{cite web |title=Alcor Scientific Advisory Board |website=Alcor |date=January 14, 2016 |url=http://alcor.org/AboutAlcor/meetsciadvboard.html |access-date=2016-04-07 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160114062954/http://alcor.org/AboutAlcor/meetsciadvboard.html |archive-date=January 14, 2016}} Alcor will neither confirm nor deny whether Minsky was cryonically preserved.{{cite web | title = Official Alcor Statement Concerning Marvin Minsky | work = Alcor News | publisher = Alcor Life Extension Foundation | date = January 27, 2016 | url = https://www.alcor.org/blog/official-alcor-statement-concerning-marvin-minsky/ | access-date = 2020-05-06 }}
Bibliography (selected)
- 1967 – Computation: Finite and Infinite Machines, Prentice-Hall
- 1969 – Perceptrons: An Introduction to Computational Geometry, MIT Press
- 1986 – The Society of Mind
- 2006 – The Emotion Machine: Commonsense Thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Human Mind
Awards and affiliations
Minsky won the Turing Award (the greatest distinction in computer science) in 1969, the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1982,{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=American Academy of Achievement|url= https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#science-exploration}} the Japan Prize in 1990,{{cite web |title=The Japan Prize |url=https://www.japanprize.jp/en/prize_past_1990_prize01.html |access-date=30 August 2024}} the IJCAI Award for Research Excellence for 1991, and the Benjamin Franklin Medal from the Franklin Institute for 2001.[http://www.fi.edu/winners/2001/minsky_marvin.faw?winner_id=3528 Marvin Minsky – The Franklin Institute Awards – Laureate Database] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110526130553/http://www.fi.edu/winners/2001/minsky_marvin.faw?winner_id=3528 |date=May 26, 2011}}. Franklin Institute. Retrieved on March 25, 2008. In 2006, he was inducted as a Fellow of the 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."{{cite web |url=https://www.computerhistory.org/fellowawards/hall/marvin-minsky/ |title=Marvin Minsky: 2006 Fellow |author= |website=Computer History Museum |access-date=July 30, 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150329010955/http://www.computerhistory.org/fellowawards/hall/bios/Marvin,Minsky |archive-date=March 29, 2015 |df=mdy-all}} In 2011, Minsky was inducted into IEEE Intelligent Systems' AI Hall of Fame for the "significant contributions to the field of AI and intelligent systems".{{Cite journal |doi=10.1109/MIS.2011.64 |title=AI's Hall of Fame |url=http://www.computer.org/cms/Computer.org/ComputingNow/homepage/2011/0811/rW_IS_AIsHallofFame.pdf |journal=IEEE Intelligent Systems |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=5–15 |year=2011 |access-date=September 4, 2015 |archive-date=December 16, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111216235804/http://www.computer.org/cms/Computer.org/ComputingNow/homepage/2011/0811/rW_IS_AIsHallofFame.pdf |url-status=dead }} In 2014, Minsky won the Dan David Prize for "Artificial Intelligence, the Digital Mind".{{cite news|url=http://english.tau.ac.il/video/dan_david_prize_2014 |title=Dan David prize 2014 winners |date=May 15, 2014 |access-date=May 20, 2014}} He was also awarded with the 2013 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Information and Communication Technologies category.{{cite news|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/01/15/mit-professor-marvin-minsky-wins-award/aSiCSHIjlGycOGYmeLSZ5L/story.html |title=MIT artificial intelligence, robotics pioneer feted: Award celebrates Minsky's career |newspaper=BostonGlobe.com |date=August 24, 2011 |access-date=January 18, 2014}}
Minsky was affiliated with the following organizations:
- United States National Academy of Engineering
- United States National Academy of Sciences
- Extropy Institute's Council of Advisors{{Cite web|url=http://www.extropy.org/directors.htm|title=Extropy Institute Directors & Advisors|website=www.extropy.org}}
- Alcor Life Extension Foundation's Scientific Advisory Board
- kynamatrix Research Network's Board of Directors{{cite web|title=kynamatrix Research Network : About|url=http://www.kynamatrix.org/organization.htm|website=www.kynamatrix.org|access-date=9 February 2018}}
Media appearances
- Machine Dreams (1988)
- Future Fantastic (1996)
See also
Notes
{{NoteFoot}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20120716182537/http://mitpress.mit.edu/e-books/Hal/chap2/two1.html Scientist on the Set: An Interview with Marvin Minsky]
- [http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/minsky/ Consciousness Is A Big Suitcase: A talk with Marvin Minsky]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20120320001744/http://necsi.edu/events/iccs/video/iccs2002wednesday/5-minskyclip.html Video of Minsky speaking at the International Conference on Complex Systems, hosted by the New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI)]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20060829135040/http://www.edge.org/video/dsl/EF02_minsky.html "The Emotion Universe": Video with Marvin Minsky]
- [http://sentientdevelopments.blogspot.com/2007/07/when-dvorsky-met-minsky.html Marvin Minsky's thoughts on the Fermi Paradox at the Transvisions 2007 conference]
- [http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/marvin_minsky_on_health_and_the_human_mind.html "Health, population and the human mind"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100317144208/http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/marvin_minsky_on_health_and_the_human_mind.html |date=March 17, 2010 }}: Marvin Minsky talk at the TED conference
- [http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-868j-the-society-of-mind-fall-2011/ "The Society of Mind"] on MIT OpenCourseWare
- [http://www.webofstories.com/people/marvin.minsky/1 Marvin Minsky] tells his life story at Web of Stories (video)
- [http://web.mit.edu/echemi/www/031126.html Marvin Minsky Playlist] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160210110026/http://web.mit.edu/echemi/www/031126.html |date=February 10, 2016 }} Appearance on WMBR's [http://web.mit.edu/echemi/www/index.html Dinnertime Sampler] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110504000207/http://web.mit.edu/echemi/www/index.html |date=May 4, 2011 }} radio show November 26, 2003
- [http://purl.umn.edu/107503 Oral history interview with Marvin Minsky] at Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Minsky describes artificial intelligence (AI) research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Topics include: the work of John McCarthy; changes in the MIT research laboratories with the advent of Project MAC; research in the areas of expert systems, graphics, word processing, and time-sharing; variations in the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) attitude toward AI.
- [http://purl.umn.edu/107717 Oral history interview with Terry Winograd] at Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Winograd describes his work in computer science, linguistics, and artificial intelligence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), discussing the work of Marvin Minsky and others.
- {{C-SPAN|1008481}}
{{Turing award}}
{{Japan Prize}}
{{Philosophy of mind}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Minsky, Marvin}}
Category:American computer scientists
Category:20th-century American Jews
Category:United States Navy personnel of World War II
Category:American artificial intelligence researchers
Category:American consciousness researchers and theorists
Category:Cryonically preserved people
Category:Ethical Culture Fieldston School alumni
Category:Fellows of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence
Category:Harvard College alumni
Category:Jewish American atheists
Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty
Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering
Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Category:Phillips Academy alumni
Category:Princeton University alumni
Category:Scientists from New York City
Category:The Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science laureates
Category:The Bronx High School of Science alumni
Category:Turing Award laureates
Category:Fellows of the Cognitive Science Society
Category:MIT Lincoln Laboratory people
Category:Presidents of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence