Perceptrons (book)

Perceptrons: an introduction to computational geometry is a book written by Marvin Minsky and Seymour Papert and published in 1969. An edition with handwritten corrections and additions was released in the early 1970s. An expanded edition was further published in 1988 (ISBN 9780262631112) after the revival of neural networks, containing a chapter dedicated to counter the criticisms made of it in the 1980s.

The main subject of the book is the perceptron, a type of artificial neural network developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The book was dedicated to psychologist Frank Rosenblatt, who in 1957 had published the first model of a "Perceptron".^[1] Rosenblatt and Minsky knew each other since adolescence, having studied with a one-year difference at the Bronx High School of Science.^[2] They became at one point central figures of a debate inside the AI research community, and are known to have promoted loud discussions in conferences, yet remained friendly.^[3]

This book is the center of a long-standing controversy in the study of artificial intelligence. It is claimed that pessimistic predictions made by the authors were responsible for a change in the direction of research in AI, concentrating efforts on so-called "symbolic" systems, a line of research that petered out and contributed to the so-called AI winter of the 1980s, when AI's promise was not realized.^[4]

The crux of Perceptrons is a number of mathematical proofs which acknowledge some of the perceptrons' strengths while also showing major limitations.^[3] The most important one is related to the computation of some predicates, such as the XOR function, and also the important connectedness predicate. The problem of connectedness is illustrated at the awkwardly colored cover of the book, intended to show how humans themselves have difficulties in computing this predicate.^[5] One reviewer, Earl Hunt, noted that the XOR function is difficult for humans to acquire as well during concept learning experiments.^[6]