Warren S. McCulloch
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Warren Sturgis McCulloch (November 16, 1898 – September 24, 1969) was an American neurophysiologist and
cybernetician Cybernetics is the transdisciplinary study of circular causal processes such as feedback and recursion, where the effects of a system's actions (its outputs) return as inputs to that system, influencing subsequent action. It is concerned with ...
known for his work on the foundation for certain brain theories and his contribution to the
cybernetics Cybernetics is the transdisciplinary study of circular causal processes such as feedback and recursion, where the effects of a system's actions (its outputs) return as inputs to that system, influencing subsequent action. It is concerned with ...
movement.Ken Aizawa (2004),
McCulloch, Warren Sturgis
. In: Dictionary of the Philosophy of Mind. Retrieved May 17, 2008.
Along with
Walter Pitts Walter Harry Pitts, Jr. (April 23, 1923 – May 14, 1969) was an American logician who worked in the field of computational neuroscience.Smalheiser, Neil R"Walter Pitts", ''Perspectives in Biology and Medicine'', Volume 43, Number 2, Wint ...
, McCulloch created computational models based on
mathematical Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
algorithms In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for per ...
called
threshold logic Threshold may refer to: Science Biology * Threshold (reference value) * Absolute threshold * Absolute threshold of hearing * Action potential * Aerobic threshold * Anaerobic threshold * Dark adaptation threshold * Epidemic threshold * Flicke ...
which split the inquiry into two distinct approaches, one approach focused on biological processes in the brain and the other focused on the application of
neural networks A neural network is a group of interconnected units called neurons that send signals to one another. Neurons can be either Cell (biology), biological cells or signal pathways. While individual neurons are simple, many of them together in a netwo ...
to
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
.


Biography

Warren Sturgis McCulloch was born in
Orange, New Jersey The City of Orange (known simply as Orange) is a Township (New Jersey), township in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 34,447, an increase o ...
, in 1898. His brother was a
chemical engineer A chemical engineer is a professional equipped with the knowledge of chemistry and other basic sciences who works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of Product (chemistry), products and deals with ...
and Warren was originally planning to join the
Christian ministry Christian ministry is the vocational work of living and teaching about faith, in the hopes of increasing the population of God's people done by the church, church officials, congregational members, and Jesus followers. The '' Cyclopedia of Bib ...
. As a teenager he was associated with the theologians
Henry Sloane Coffin Henry Sloane Coffin (January 5, 1877 – November 25, 1954) was president of the Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, Union Theological Seminary, Moderator of the General Assembly, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in the Unit ...
,
Harry Emerson Fosdick Harry Emerson Fosdick (May 24, 1878 – October 5, 1969) was an American pastor. Fosdick became a central figure in the fundamentalist–modernist controversy within American Protestantism in the 1920s and 1930s and was one of the most prominen ...
,
Herman Karl Wilhelm Kumm Herman may refer to: People * Herman (name), list of people with this name * Saint Herman (disambiguation) * Peter Noone (born 1947), known by the mononym Herman Places in the United States * Herman, Arkansas * Herman, Michigan * Herman, Minn ...
and Julian F. Hecker. He was also mentored by the
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...
Rufus Jones. He attended
Haverford College Haverford College ( ) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Haverford, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded as a men's college in 1833 by members of the Religious Society of Fr ...
then studied philosophy and psychology at
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1921. He continued to study psychology at Columbia and received a Master of Arts degree in 1923. Receiving his MD in 1927 from the
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons The Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (officially known as Columbia University Roy and Diana Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons) is the medical school of Columbia University, located at the Columbia University Irvin ...
in New York, he undertook an internship at
Bellevue Hospital Bellevue Hospital (officially NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue and formerly known as Bellevue Hospital Center) is a hospital in New York City and the oldest public hospital in the United States. One of the largest hospitals in the United States ...
, New York. Then he worked under
Eilhard von Domarus Eilhard von Domarus (1893 – 1958) was a German-born American psychiatrist. He played an important role in the development of the interdisciplinary study of philosophy and neurology. Warren McCulloch Warren Sturgis McCulloch (November 16, 1898 ...
at the Rockland State Hospital for the Insane. He returned to academia in 1934. He worked at the Laboratory for Neurophysiology at Yale University from 1934 to 1941. In 1941 he moved to Chicago and joined the Department of Psychiatry at the
University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the Universi ...
, where he was a professor of psychiatry, as well as the director of the Illinois Neuropsychiatric Institute until 1951. From 1952 he worked at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...
in
Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...
with
Norbert Wiener Norbert Wiener (November 26, 1894 – March 18, 1964) was an American computer scientist, mathematician, and philosopher. He became a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT). A child prodigy, Wiener late ...
. He was a founding member of the
American Society for Cybernetics The American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) is an American non-profit scholastic organization for the advancement of cybernetics as a science, a discipline, a meta-discipline and the promotion of cybernetics as basis for an interdisciplinary disc ...
and its second president during 1967–1968. He was a mentor to the British
operations research Operations research () (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a branch of applied mathematics that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve management and ...
pioneer
Stafford Beer Anthony Stafford Beer (25 September 1926 – 23 August 2002) was a British theorist, consultant and professor at Manchester Business School. He is known for his work in the fields of operational research and management cybernetics, and for his ...
. McCulloch had a range of interests and talents. In addition to his scientific contributions he wrote poetry (
sonnet A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...
s), and he designed and engineered buildings and a dam at his farm in
Old Lyme Old Lyme is a coastal town in New London County, Connecticut, United States, bounded on the west by the Connecticut River, on the south by the Long Island Sound, on the east by the town of East Lyme, and on the north by the town of Lyme. The town ...
, Connecticut. McCulloch married Ruth Metzger, known as 'Rook', in 1924 and they had three children. He died in
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
in 1969.


Work

He is remembered for his work with Joannes Gregorius Dusser de Barenne from Yale and later with
Walter Pitts Walter Harry Pitts, Jr. (April 23, 1923 – May 14, 1969) was an American logician who worked in the field of computational neuroscience.Smalheiser, Neil R"Walter Pitts", ''Perspectives in Biology and Medicine'', Volume 43, Number 2, Wint ...
from the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
. He provided the foundation for certain brain theories in a number of classic papers, including "''
A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity "A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent to Nervous Activity" is a 1943 article written by Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts. The paper, published in the journal '' The Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics,'' proposed a mathematical model of the ...
''" (1943) and "''How We Know Universals: The Perception of Auditory and Visual Forms''" (1947), both published in the ''Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics''. The former is "widely credited with being a seminal contribution to neural network theory, the theory of automata, the theory of computation, and cybernetics". McCulloch was the chair of the set of
Macy conferences The Macy conferences were a set of meetings of scholars from various academic disciplines held in New York under the direction of Frank Fremont-Smith at the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation starting in 1941 and ending in 1960. The explicit aim of th ...
dedicated to Cybernetics. These, greatly due to the diversity of the backgrounds of the participants McCulloch brought in, became the foundation for the field. In Wiener's ''Cybernetics'' (1948), he recounted an event in the spring of 1947, when McCulloch designed a machine to allow the blind to read, by converting printed letters to tones. He designed it so that the tone is invariant for the same letter viewed under different angles. Gerhardt von Bonin saw the design, and immediately asked, " Is this a diagram of the fourth layer of the
visual cortex The visual cortex of the brain is the area of the cerebral cortex that processes visual information. It is located in the occipital lobe. Sensory input originating from the eyes travels through the lateral geniculate nucleus in the thalam ...
of the brain?". In his last days in 1960s, he worked on loops, oscillations and triadic relations with Moreno-Díaz; the reticular formation with Kilmer and dynamic models of memory with Da Fonseca. His work in the 1960s was summarized in a 1968 paper.


Neuroscience

He studied the excitation of the brain by
strychnine Strychnine (, , American English, US chiefly ) is a highly toxicity, toxic, colorless, bitter, crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine, when inhaled, swallowed, ...
neuronography, which was a method to map brain connections. Applying strychnine in one point of the brain causes excitations in different points of the brain. Bailey, Bonin, and McCulloch conducted a series of studies in the 1940s that identified connections in the brains of macaque and chimpanzee that are consistent with modern understanding of VOF.


Mathematical logic

In 1919 he began to work mainly on mathematical logic, and by 1923 he attempted to make a logic of
transitive verb A transitive verb is a verb that entails one or more transitive objects, for example, 'enjoys' in ''Amadeus enjoys music''. This contrasts with intransitive verbs, which do not entail transitive objects, for example, 'arose' in ''Beatrice arose ...
s. His goal in psychology is to invent a "psychon" or "least psychic event" that are binary atomic events with necessary causes, such that they can be combined to create complex logical propositions concerning their antecedents. He noticed in 1929 that these may correspond to the all-or-nothing firings of neurons in the brain. In the 1943 paper, they described how memories can be formed by a neural network with loops in it, or alterable synapses. These then encodes for sentences like "There was some x such that x was a ψ" or (\exists x) (\psi x), and showed that looped neural networks can encode all
first-order logic with equality First-order logic, also called predicate logic, predicate calculus, or quantificational logic, is a collection of formal systems used in mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. First-order logic uses quantified variables over ...
and conversely, any looped neural networks is equivalent to a sentence in first-order logic with equality, thus showing that they are equivalent in logical expressiveness. The 1943 paper describes neural networks operating over time, and logical universals -- "there exists" and "for all"—for spatial objects, such as geometric figures, was further developed in their 1947 paper. He worked with
Manuel Blum Manuel Blum (born 26 April 1938) is a Venezuelan-born American computer scientist who received the Turing Award in 1995 "In recognition of his contributions to the foundations of computational complexity theory and its application to cryptography ...
in studying how a neural network can be "logically stable", that is, can implement a boolean function even if the activation thresholds of individual neurons are varied. They were inspired by the problem of how the brain can perform the same functions, such as breathing, under influence of
caffeine Caffeine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant of the methylxanthine chemical classification, class and is the most commonly consumed Psychoactive drug, psychoactive substance globally. It is mainly used for its eugeroic (wakefulness pr ...
or
alcohol Alcohol may refer to: Common uses * Alcohol (chemistry), a class of compounds * Ethanol, one of several alcohols, commonly known as alcohol in everyday life ** Alcohol (drug), intoxicant found in alcoholic beverages ** Alcoholic beverage, an alco ...
, which shifts the activation threshold over the entire brain. He worked on triadic relations, an extension of the
calculus of relations In mathematical logic, algebraic logic is the reasoning obtained by manipulating equations with free variables. What is now usually called classical algebraic logic focuses on the identification and algebraic description of models appropriate for ...
to handle relations that relates 3 objects, such as "A gives B to C" or "A perceives B to be C". He was convinced that such a logic is necessary for understanding brain activity.


How we know universals

In the 1947 paper ''How we know universals'', they studied the problem of recognizing objects despite changes in representation. For example, recognizing a square under different viewing angles and lighting conditions, or recognizing a phoneme under different loudness and tones. That is, recognizing objects invariant under the
action Action may refer to: * Action (philosophy), something which is done by a person * Action principles the heart of fundamental physics * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video gam ...
of some
symmetry group In group theory, the symmetry group of a geometric object is the group of all transformations under which the object is invariant, endowed with the group operation of composition. Such a transformation is an invertible mapping of the amb ...
. This problem was partly inspired by a practical problem in designing a machine for the blind to read (recounted in Wiener's ''Cybernetics'', see before). The paper proposed two solutions. The first is in computing an invariant by averaging over the symmetry group. Let the symmetry group be G and the object to be recognized be x. Let a neural network implement a function T. Then, the group-invariant representation would be \frac\sum_ T(g x), the group-action average. The second solution is in a negative feedback circuit that drives a canonical representation. Consider the problem of recognizing whether an object is a square. The circuit moves the eye so that the "center of gravity of brightness" of the object is moved to the middle of the visual field. This then effectively converts each object into a canonical representation, which can then be compared with a representation in the brain.


Neural network modelling

In the 1943 paper McCulloch and Pitts attempted to demonstrate that a
Turing machine A Turing machine is a mathematical model of computation describing an abstract machine that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules. Despite the model's simplicity, it is capable of implementing any computer algori ...
program could be implemented in a finite network of ''formal''
neuron A neuron (American English), neurone (British English), or nerve cell, is an membrane potential#Cell excitability, excitable cell (biology), cell that fires electric signals called action potentials across a neural network (biology), neural net ...
s (in the event, the Turing Machine contains their model of the brain, but the converse is not true), that the neuron was the base logic unit of the brain. In the 1947 paper they offered approaches to designing "nervous nets" to recognize visual inputs despite changes in orientation or size. From 1952 McCulloch worked at the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT, working primarily on
neural network A neural network is a group of interconnected units called neurons that send signals to one another. Neurons can be either biological cells or signal pathways. While individual neurons are simple, many of them together in a network can perfor ...
modelling. His team examined the visual system of the
frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...
in consideration of McCulloch's 1947 paper, discovering that the eye provides the brain with information that is already, to a degree, organized and interpreted, instead of simply transmitting an image. With Roberto Moreno-Díaz, he studied a formalized problem of memory. Given that neural networks can story memory by a pattern of oscillations in a circle, they studied the number of possible oscillation patterns that can be sustained by some neural network with N neurons. This came out to be K(N) = \binom\sum_^ k! (Schnabel, 1966). Also, they proved a universality theorem, in that for each N, there exists a neural network (possibly with more than N neurons) with \log_2 K(N) binary inputs, such that, for any oscillation pattern realizable by some neural network with N neurons, there exists a binary input for this universal network such that it exhibits the same pattern.


Control

McCulloch considered the problem of contradictory information and motives, which he called a "
heterarchy A heterarchy is a system of organization where the elements of the organization are unranked (non- hierarchical) or where they possess the potential to be ranked a number of different ways. Definitions of the term vary among the disciplines: in soc ...
" of motives, meaning that the motives are not linearly ordered, but can be ordered like A > B > C > A. He posited the concept of "poker chip"
reticular formation The reticular formation is a set of interconnected nuclei in the brainstem that spans from the lower end of the medulla oblongata to the upper end of the midbrain. The neurons of the reticular formation make up a complex set of neural networks ...
s as to how the brain deals with contradictory information in a democratic, somatotopical neural network. Specifically, how the brain can commit the animal to a single course of action when the situation is ambiguous. They designed a prototypic example neural network "RETIC", with "12 anastomatically coupled modules stacked in columnar array", which can switch between unambiguous stable modes based on ambiguous inputs. His principle of "Redundancy of Potential Command" was developed by von Foerster and Pask in their study of
self-organization Self-organization, also called spontaneous order in the social sciences, is a process where some form of overall order and disorder, order arises from local interactions between parts of an initially disordered system. The process can be spont ...
and by Pask in his
Conversation Theory Conversation theory is a cybernetic approach to the study of conversation, cognition and learning that may occur between two participants who are engaged in conversation with each other. It presents an experimental framework heavily utilizing Hum ...
and
Interactions of Actors Theory In information theory, Interactions of actors theory is a theory developed by Gordon Pask and Gerard de Zeeuw. It is a generalisation of Pask's earlier conversation theory: The chief distinction being that conversation theory focuses on analysing ...
.Gordon Pask (1996). ''Heinz von Foerster's Self-Organisation, the Progenitor of Conversation and Interaction Theories''


Publications

McCulloch wrote a book and several articles:His papers now reside in the manuscripts collection of the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
.
* 1965, ''Embodiments of Mind''. MIT Press, Cambridge, * 1993, ''The Complete Works of Warren S. McCulloch''. Intersystems Publications: Salinas, CA. Articles, a selection: * 1943
"A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity"
With
Walter Pitts Walter Harry Pitts, Jr. (April 23, 1923 – May 14, 1969) was an American logician who worked in the field of computational neuroscience.Smalheiser, Neil R"Walter Pitts", ''Perspectives in Biology and Medicine'', Volume 43, Number 2, Wint ...
. In: ''Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics'' Vol 5, pp 115–133. * 1945, "A Heterarchy of Values Determined by the Topology of Nervous Nets". In: ''Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics'', 7, 1945, 89–93. * 1959
"What The Frog's Eye Tells The Frog's Brain"
With
Jerome Lettvin Jerome Ysroael Lettvin (February 23, 1920 – April 23, 2011), often known as Jerry Lettvin, was an American cognitive scientist, and Professor of Electrical and Bioengineering and Communications Physiology at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech ...
, H.R. Maturana and W.H. Pitts. In: ''Proc. of the I. R. E.'' Vol 47 (11). * 1969
"Recollections of the Many Sources of Cybernetics"
published in: ASC FORUM Volume VI, Number 2 -Summer 1974. Papers published by the Chicago Literary Club: * 1945
"One Word After Another"
* 1959
"The Past of a Delusion"
* 1959
"The Natural Fit"


See also

* Randolph diagram


References


Further reading

*''Rebel Genius: Warren S. McCulloch's Transdisciplinary Life in Science'' (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2016). *''New York Times'' (1969), Obituaries, September 25. * Crevier, Daniel (1993), ''AI: The Tumultuous Search for Artificial Intelligence'', BasicBooks, New York, NY. {{DEFAULTSORT:McCulloch, Warren Sturgis 1898 births 1969 deaths Cyberneticists American neuroscientists American systems scientists People from Orange, New Jersey Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons alumni Haverford College alumni Yale University alumni