What do you think?
Rate this book
The Living Brain
Dr Walter begins with a history of the evolution of the brain, and describes to us something of the meaning of "that enchanted loom where millions of flashing shuttles weave a dissolving pattern."
He then tells the story of the invention and perfection of the EEG machine and its clinical use for the diagnosis of brain afflictions. He analyzes, with vivid examples, the rhythmic patterns of personality revealed in different "brain prints," and discusses what light these new electronic processes can throw on memory, vision, fatigue, sleep, hypnotism, genius, lunacy, sex disturbances, crime, and other problems of everyday interest.
He includes descriptions, with wiring diagrams, of the various electrical toys (including the speculatrix or mechanical turtle) which he has himself invented to demonstrate his theories. With an extraordinary gift for language, a minimum of speculation and a maximum of demonstrated fact, Dr Walter has written a truly exciting book, a landmark in the advance of human knowledge.
He then tells the story of the invention and perfection of the EEG machine and its clinical use for the diagnosis of brain afflictions. He analyzes, with vivid examples, the rhythmic patterns of personality revealed in different "brain prints," and discusses what light these new electronic processes can throw on memory, vision, fatigue, sleep, hypnotism, genius, lunacy, sex disturbances, crime, and other problems of everyday interest.
He includes descriptions, with wiring diagrams, of the various electrical toys (including the speculatrix or mechanical turtle) which he has himself invented to demonstrate his theories. With an extraordinary gift for language, a minimum of speculation and a maximum of demonstrated fact, Dr Walter has written a truly exciting book, a landmark in the advance of human knowledge.
328 pages, Paperback
First published May 17, 1953
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 10, 2016
An absolutely fascinating look at the state of the art of brain research throughout the 1950s. Dr. Walter was at the forefront of that research and presents a very readable and thoughtful book. (British readers will find it a bit more readable because of the colloquialisms and those with a touch of English school-boy Latin even a little bit more)
While I'm always wary of believing sixty year old science, and wonder how much of it may have been disproved, it's interesting to note some of the early discoveries. Dr. Walter's group seems to have been the first to notice that flashing lights will cause epileptic fits in some people. And they willingly did this time and time again! Presumably the test subjects signed waivers!
I was also surprised by how prophetic Dr. Walter waxed in terms of artificial neural nets and the teaching profession. He wasn't speaking specifically of artificial nets when he proposed the that number of connections was more important than the number of neurons but that's some great foreshadowing. And he sort of anticipated the theory of multiple kinds of intelligence in his summary.
Truth to tell, I read it because of the robots Dr. Walter's group built based on their theories of how the structure of the brain leads to behavior. 30 years later Valentino Braitenberg and Rodney Brooks would independently pick up similar lines of research. One can't help but think they were both inspired by Dr. Walter. This book is destined for space on my "practical robotics" bookshelf because of this. It would be fun to build Machina Speculatrix using modern hardware!
Now go read the review by Steve Battle who does a much better job of describing the book.
While I'm always wary of believing sixty year old science, and wonder how much of it may have been disproved, it's interesting to note some of the early discoveries. Dr. Walter's group seems to have been the first to notice that flashing lights will cause epileptic fits in some people. And they willingly did this time and time again! Presumably the test subjects signed waivers!
I was also surprised by how prophetic Dr. Walter waxed in terms of artificial neural nets and the teaching profession. He wasn't speaking specifically of artificial nets when he proposed the that number of connections was more important than the number of neurons but that's some great foreshadowing. And he sort of anticipated the theory of multiple kinds of intelligence in his summary.
Truth to tell, I read it because of the robots Dr. Walter's group built based on their theories of how the structure of the brain leads to behavior. 30 years later Valentino Braitenberg and Rodney Brooks would independently pick up similar lines of research. One can't help but think they were both inspired by Dr. Walter. This book is destined for space on my "practical robotics" bookshelf because of this. It would be fun to build Machina Speculatrix using modern hardware!
Now go read the review by Steve Battle who does a much better job of describing the book.
May 23, 2013
A classic text by one of the founders of cybernetics, a contemporary of Turing, and the creator of the very first autonomous robots; of which the circuit diagrams are reproduced in the appendix. This book is a time-machine that takes us back, in style as well as content, to the scientific optimism of the 50's. I would recommend purchasing a copy from the period, for the smell and discolouration of the paper, for the fully immersive experience. The war in Europe is recent history, and "many electronic parts and devices which were developed for radar" are in surplus. Students of the great Pavlov bring news from Leningrad. The electroencephalograph (EEG) is the MRI of its time; a new and relatively unexplored window into the workings of the brain. This book explores the structure of the brain, surmising that it is the connectivity of brain cells, rather than their absolute number, that is key. The heart of this book is the description of Machina speculatrix - a scientific model of this principle exploring the connectivity between the absolute minimum of two artificial brain cells based on the new miniature thermionic valves. The concept is so shockingly new, arguably as significant as the development of the Turing machine itself, that the publication of this book earns Walter nothing but ridicule among his contemporaries at the Ratio Club. The Machina speculatrix were initially regarded as nothing more than toys; a situation that resulted in this book being neglected almost for the remainder of the 20th century. Whether you regard Walter as a showman or genius, this book touches on concepts that are still mysteries in the 21st century.
April 1, 2021
An utterly fascinating book about brain research in the first part of the 20th century. The most engaging chapters for me were those about the Machina Speculatrix, or "turtles" that Walter designed to behave like mechanical neurons. The research and engineering that led to the development of the Speculatrix delves deep into thinking about how people and machines, motivated by goals, acquire information about the world around them and then process that information, which then feeds back into new learning and behavioral choices.
Readers will notice many connections to Cybernetics research (e.g., Wiener, Beer, Pask, Ashby) and some tasty speculation at the end of the book about the possibilities for delegating menial brain activity to mechanical systems, thus freeing the brain to take a leap forward in development by an order of magnitude similar to what is thought to have happened with the development of agriculture.
Readers will notice many connections to Cybernetics research (e.g., Wiener, Beer, Pask, Ashby) and some tasty speculation at the end of the book about the possibilities for delegating menial brain activity to mechanical systems, thus freeing the brain to take a leap forward in development by an order of magnitude similar to what is thought to have happened with the development of agriculture.
January 28, 2024
Author underlined the memory processing in the brain in a very detailed way. He analyses a system of memory is not a place it is process. Figures are quite interesting and might need further discussion in the book. Sleep, genius, hypnotism and mental problems are also subjects to this fascinating book.
July 21, 2019
Fascinating.
March 27, 2017
Although dated, this is a fascinating discussion of the brain including a brief account of its development alongside changes in the evolution of life on earth.
Sometimes poetic and humorous while providing information on plants and various other less complex neural structures. There is a special focus on electrophysiology and electroencephalography.
Sometimes poetic and humorous while providing information on plants and various other less complex neural structures. There is a special focus on electrophysiology and electroencephalography.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews