An Introduction to Natural Computation (Complex Adaptive Systems)

Dana H. Ballard

ISBN 10: 0262024209 / ISBN 13: 9780262024204

Published by A Bradford Book, MIT Press, 1997

About this Item

Top of spine has a 3/8 inch closed tear and small area of wear; spine is a bit cocked; top outer edge has minor soil; former ownership signature of a Harvard economist is at top of free front endpaper; tight, text clean. xxii, [2], 307 p., illustrated. [b 215]. Seller Inventory # 407089

Bibliographic Details

Title: An Introduction to Natural Computation (...

Publisher: A Bradford Book, MIT Press

Publication Date: 1997

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Good

Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

"This is a wonderful book that brings together in one place the modern view of computation as found in nature. It is well written and has something for everyone from the undergraduate to the advanced researcher." -- Terrence J. Sejnowski, Howard Hughes Medical Institute at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California It is now clear that the brain is unlikely to be understood without recourse to computational theories. The theme of An Introduction to Natural Computation is that ideas from diverse areas such as neuroscience, information theory, and optimization theory have recently been extended in ways that make them useful for describing the brain's programs. This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the computational material that forms the underpinnings of the currently evolving set of brain models. It stresses the broad spectrum of learning models--ranging from neural network learning through reinforcement learning to genetic learning--and situates the various models in their appropriate neural context. To write about models of the brain before the brain is fully understood is a delicate matter. Very detailed models of the neural circuitry risk losing track of the task the brain is trying to solve. At the other extreme, models that represent cognitive constructs can be so abstract that they lose all relation to neurobiology. An Introduction to Natural Computation takes the middle ground and stresses the computational task while staying near the neurobiology. The material is accessible to advanced undergraduates as well as beginning graduate students.

About the Author:

Dana Ballard is Professor in the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester.