Reminiscences of McCulloch and Pitts and some others

Abstract

These are recollections of a fruitful and colourful period in the mid‐1950s when the speaker was fortunate to have the opportunity to spend some time with the group around Warren McCulloch in MIT. This was when the topic of cybernetics was in its infancy, but subsequent to the unfortunate split between Wiener and the McCulloch group. Other members of the group included Pat Wall and Jerry Lettvin and Walter Pitts. The main research in progress was on transmission in the cat spinal cord, and laid a foundation for the later major contributions of Pat Wall (who died in August 2001) to understand pain mechanisms and means of pain alleviation. The famous studies of the frog visual system also began at this time.

Citation

Andrew, A.M. (2004), "Reminiscences of McCulloch and Pitts and some others", Kybernetes, Vol. 33 No. 9/10, pp. 1387-1391. https://doi.org/10.1108/03684920410556025