Computer Science:
A science still in its infancy. While other sciences study how particular types of objects interact, computer science studies how interactions work in general - that is, how societies of parts can accomplish what those parts cannot do separately. Although computer science began with the study of serial computers - that is, of machines that could only do one thing at a time - it has grown to the point of studying the sorts of interconnected networks of processes that must go on inside societies of mind.
- Marvin Minsky in the Glossary and Bibliography to The Society of Mind, 1985
Minsky, Marvin. The Society of Mind. Simon and Schuster, 1985
In 270 very readable one-page essays, Minsky presents a society of ideas about the society of mind. It is true Zen. Every page is a mob of astounding and mind-changing ideas. And at every point in thinking about complex systems I would come back to Minsky. This is the book that eventually led me to write this book.
- Annotated Bibliography: Out Of Control, Kevin Kelly, 1994
Marvin is the smartest man I know. His humor defies description and he is arguably the most important computer scientist alive. He is fond of quoting Samuel Goldwyn: "Don't pay any attention to the critics. Don't even ignore them."
I owe a special gratitude to Alan Kay of Apple Computer and Robert W. Lucky of Bellcore. I have developed many of the ideas in this book thanks to their insights. Kay reminds me: "Perspective is worth fifty points of IQ." Lucky was the first to ask, "Is a bit really a bit?"
- Nicholas Negroponte in Acknowledgements, being digital, Alfred A. Knopf, 1995