ABSTRACT
This essay examines the origins of computational models of mind in the 1940's. In particular, it compares the theory and embodiment of three different models of mind and intelligence which were produced in that period by three of the most significant figures in the development of such models. The first of these is the mathematician John von Neumann, his design of the Institute for Advanced Study machine, and his drive to build computational simulations of the mind. The second is the mathematician Alan Turing, his Automatic Computing Engine and his drive to discover the fundamental algorithmic processes underlying human intelligence. Third is the psychiatrist W. Ross Ashby, his Homeostat and his drive to recreate the fundamental processes of life and intelligence in a machine. Each of these computer designers intended to exhibit a specific theory of how a scientific understanding of the mind might be approached. Moreover, competing theories of mind and brain influenced the architectural design of their machines. In particular, the essay examines how psychological aspects of memory influenced machine design. It also considers competing theories of intelligence promoted by Turing and Ashby and exhibited in their machines and discussed in their correspondence. The paper concludes that a social and historical understanding of the debates about Artificial Intelligence beginning in the 1950's, and whether or not "machines can think" must consider the significant difference in the way this concept was constructed in these three specific cases.