BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Marvin Lee Minsky was born in New York on 9th August, 1927. He received his B.A from Harvard in 1950 and Ph.D in Mathematics from Princeton in 1954. For the next three years he was a member of the Harvard University Society of Fellows, and in 1957-58 was staff member of the M.I.T. Lincoln Laboratories. At present he is Assistant Professor of Mathematics at M.I.T. where he is giving a course in Automata and Artificial Intelligence and is also staff member of the Research Laboratory of Electronics. SUMMARY THIS paper is an attempt to discuss and partially organize a number of ideas concerning the design or programming of machines to work on problems for which the designer does not have, in advance, practical methods of solution. Particular attention is given to processes involving pattern recognition, learning, planning ahead, and the use of analogies or?models!. Also considered is the question of designing "administrative" procedures to manage the use of these other devices.