The Dawn of Dynamic Programming Richard E. Bellman (1920–1984) is best known for the invention of dynamic programming in the 1950s. During his amazingly prolific career, based primarily at The University of Southern California, he published 39 books (several of which were reprinted by Dover, including Dynamic Programming, 42809-5, 2003) and 619 papers. Despite battling the crippling effects of a brain injury, he still published 100 papers during the last eleven years of his life. He was a frequent informal advisor to Dover during the 1960s and 1970s. Professor Bellman was awarded the IEEE Medal of Honor in 1979 "for contributions to decision processes and control system theory, particularly the creation and application of dynamic programming."

In Applications of Logic to Advanced Digital Computer Programming, Ann Arbor, Mich: University of Michigan Press

RAND Corporation Paper P-987, Santa Monica, Calif

Between 1946 and 1956, a number of BBC radio broadcasts were made by pioneers in the fields of computing, artificial intelligence and cybernetics. Although no sound recordings of the broadcasts survive, transcripts are held at the BBC's Written Archives Centre at Caversham in the UK. This paper is based on a study of these transcripts, which have received little attention from historians. The paper surveys the range of computer-related broadcasts during 1946-1956 and discusses some recurring themes from the broadcasts, especially the relationship of'artificial intelligence' to human intelligence.

John Wiley & Sons, New York

Proc. First Intern. Congress of Cybernetics, Namur, 8S-56

"The modern general-purpose computer can be characterized as the embodiment of a three-point philosophy: (1) There shall exist a way of computing anything computable; (2) The computer shall be so fast that it does not matter how complicated the way is; and (3) Man shall be so intelligent that he will be able to discern the way and instruct the computer." Proceedings of the 1955 Western Joint Computer Conference, Institute of Radio Engineers, New York, pp 101-108, 1955. (Also issued as RAND Technical Report P-620.)

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The maze can be changed _ any desired mantler by rearranging the partitions between the twen --:five squares. In the maze there is a sensing finger, which can feel the -.:titions of the maze as it comes against them. This finger is moved .- The goal is mounted on a pin which can be slipped into a jack _ any of the twenty-five squares. Thus you can change the problem ..' way you choose, within the limits of the 5 x 5 maze.

' This work was done in collaboration with Drs. But it is attenuated because the electrode computes a weighted average over a volume of a function whose own average is zero. To this external medium, the nerve appears to produce, absorb, then produce current when a spike passes; from this probe's standpoint of view, the impulse is a source, followed by sink, followed by source. Their algebraic sum in time is zero, unless the impulse stops either at the electrode or short of it. In the former case, the preceding source is averaged with the initial part of the sink, but the stationary decaying sink is recorded as a large negative potential with respect to a remote electrode.