The Substrates of Intelligence, a Neural Network Primer

Abstract

What is an artificial neural network? How do artificial neural networks compare with conventional computers and traditional massively parallel computers, and when are they more useful? What are possible applications of neural network technology? These questions will be answered in the beginning of this chapter, followed by the presentation of an engineering model based on equations which characterize the behavior of one popular class of neural networks for supervised learning. Supervised learning uses both input training patterns and desired system output patterns for neural network training. This chapter then provides a simple program demonstrating how to write and run artificial neural network simulators followed by a listing of a complete production-capable neural network simulator. Examples show how to set up training data for and run this complete simulator (which is used for speech recognition in chapter 5 and reading handwritten characters in chapter 6). This chapter ends with more suggested projects and hints for their solution.