Amosov: Modeling of Thinking and the Mind
In 1965 the Kyiv publisher Naukova Dumka issued the surgeon and cybernetician Nikolai Amosov's book on modelling thinking and the mind, in Russian, 302 pages; in 1967 it appeared in English as Modeling of Thinking and the Mind. The book describes the cortex of the brain as 'a powerful modeling apparatus' with temporary and permanent models.
Why it matters
Kyiv had a programmatic book on modelling thought: in its conclusion the author names heuristic modelling of the mind in machines as the most important direction, with artificial nerve networks as one of the parallel paths. The later TAIR of his department stands in this direction. This is an editorial assessment.
The Kyiv edition of 1965 was not read: its date and length come from the Library of Congress catalogue, its content from the first pages of chapters of the English translation (New York, Spartan; London, Macmillan, 1967; xiii, 192 pp.). Chapter 5 describes temporary models, in which the external world is reflected briefly, and permanent models, permanent memory. In the conclusion the author calls the book 'nothing more than a popular introduction' and lists four types of model that can be built in machines, from hierarchical information processing to 'conscious and subconscious'. What the record does not claim: that the book already describes the system of reinforcement and inhibition on which TAIR stands, which the pages read do not contain; who translated the book, and where the author worked according to the edition itself.