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Full Description
In this candid and witty autobiography, Nobel laureate Herbert A. Simon looks at his distinguished and varied career, continually asking himself whether (and how) what he learned as a scientist helps to explain other aspects of his life.A brilliant polymath in an age of increasing specialization, Simon is one of those rare scholars whose work defines fields of inquiry. Crossing disciplinary lines in half a dozen fields, Simon's story encompasses an explosion in the information sciences, the transformation of psychology by the information-processing paradigm, and the use of computer simulation for modeling the behavior of highly complex systems.Simon's theory of bounded rationality led to a Nobel Prize in economics, and his work on building machines that think-based on the notion that human intelligence is the rule-governed manipulation of symbols-laid conceptual foundations for the new cognitive science. Subsequently, contrasting metaphors of the maze (Simon's view) and of the mind (neural nets) have dominated the artificial intelligence debate.There is also a warm account of his successful marriage and of an unconsummated love affair, letters to his children, columns, a short story, and political and personal intrigue in academe.
Contents
Part I Journey to a 21st birthdayfields; education in Chicago; encounter with a scientific revolution - political science at Chicago. Part II The scientist as a young man: a taste of research - the City Managers' Association; managing research - Berkeley; teaching at Illinois Tech; a matter of loyalty; building a business school - the Graduate School of Industrial Administration; research and science politics; mazes without minotaurs; roots of artificial intelligence; climbing the mountain - artificial intelligence achieved. Part III View from the mountain: exploring the plain; personal threads in the warp; creating a university environment for cognitive science and A.I.; on being argumentative; the student troubles; the scientist as politician; foreign adventures. Part IV Research after 60: from Nobel to now; the amateur diplomat in China and the Soviet Union; guides for choice. Afterword: the scientist as problem solver.
