ABSTRACT
The highest achievement of biological evolution is generally taken to be the human brain. Human intelligence results from the brains great ability to store and process information, a trait attributable to its tremendous complexity. The brain has 1010 to 1011 neurons10 (nerve cells), each of which interact directly with between 10 and 10,000 others, and with even more through secondary contacts. A single stimulus can initiate many thousands of serial and parallel excitations and responses. In the longstanding effort to understand intelligence this complexity has placed the brain functions beyond available analytic techniques. Now, for the first time, the digital computer has allowed simulation or some behaviors attributable to the brain, with the hope of gaining insight into its operation. Conversely, the brain can be regarded as an ultimate computer and its structure has stimulated approaches to computer architecture, with the hope of improving computer ability to solve complex problems.
