Desires & Diversions (video)

This week, we will watch a recorded lecture presented by Allen Newell in 1991.

"what happens with a whole scientific career? Mine isn't over, but it's already 40 years long. What shape and even purpose can be given to such an endeavour? Like all things human, the answers are diverse – there are many styles of scientific lives .. I will tell some of my own scientific endeavour .. to shed light on how to live a science."

With this introduction, Allen Newell begins a fascinating retrospection of his lifelong pursuit of a single scientific goal: understanding the nature of the human mind. He discusses when a scientific life really starts, how to make diversions and failures useful, and what to do with successes.
Dr. Allen Newell (1927-1992), the U.A. and Helen Whitaker University Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, had an imaginative 42-year career in artificial intelligence and cognitive psychology.