The Brain Makers: The History Of Artificial Intelligence

by H.P. Newquist

"The Brain Makers" is the definitive history of artificial intelligence (AI). From ancient myth to modern computers, the book explores the attempt to create machines that behave and think like humans. Along the way, readers meet the mythical Talas, Frankenstein's monster, Edgar Allan Poe's chess player, and the first mechanical robots--and are then introduced to the work of Alan Turing and the secretive military research labs of the 1960s. An entire industry was built around AI in the 1980s, one which came crashing down once the promises of thinking machines proved to be more than researchers could accomplish. Everything changed in 2015, when AI came roaring back as the most fascinating--and feared--technology ever developed. All along, HP Newquist, the leading writer in the AI industry for more than a decade, gives an insider's perspective to the history, providing detailed accounts of the genius, ego, and greed that helped to make artificial intelligence the one technology that governments, corporations, and researchers around the world agree will change the world.

"'The Brain Makers' engagingly tells the story of artificial intelligence's rise and fall and gradual redemption, investing it with all the high drama and unexpected revelations of a celebrity memoir." - Omni Magazine

"Newquist gives the glory days of artificial intelligence an official record." - The Boston Globe

Genres: Artificial Intelligence, Nonfiction, Science, Programming

Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 1994

About the author

HP Newquist has written more than 30 books, including national award winners This Will Kill You, Here There Be Monsters, and The Book Of Blood. Newquist has regularly explored the reality underlying the things that scare us. Newquist’s newest books, BEHEMOTH and Ten Years Gone, are guaranteed to captivate - and scare - lovers of fiction.

Newquist writes about everything from music and medicine to technology and terror. His work has been published in numerous languages and has been cited by The New York Times, Publisher's Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, and hundreds of other publications around the world. He has received awards from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, The Library Guild, the New York Public Library, the NSTA, VOYA, and the Center For Children's Literature. He also happens to be the founder of The National GUITAR Museum.

Reviews

[Daniel]

Good until it got to depressing 3/4 of the way through to finish.

[Cal Desmond-Pearson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it first back in the days. Still an influence on my thinking and life.