Remembering Computing Pioneer Marvin Minsky, Dead at 88

The science and technology community is mourning the loss of Marvin Minsky, the MIT-based artificial intelligence and computing giant, who passed away Sunday at the age of 88.

Minsky is a transcendent figure who cut major swaths through the history of scientific research, education, philosophy, and technology. His ideas are credited with influencing everything from modern-day computers and the Internet to A.I. techniques such as machine learning, as well as neuroscience and robotics. But perhaps his greatest achievement was in teaching people, not machines, to think.

Minsky’s legacy of ideas and research may take generations to understand, let alone fully appreciate. Here are five reflections on his life:

—The New York Times gives a proper sense of Minsky’s breadth of expertise and interests.

—The Washington Post captures his good-natured disdain for unsophisticated approaches to A.I. and cognitive science.

—Minsky’s TED talk from 2003 covered “health and the human mind.”

—MIT Technology Review has a video interview from Minsky’s home last fall.

—MIT’s obituary highlights some of his concrete achievements and honors. Among them, Minsky was instrumental in creating MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab and the MIT Media Lab, whose research and projects, of course, live on.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.